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^ 



DE QUINCEY'S 
REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 

OR, FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS 

PEOPLE FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES 

TO THE FRONTIERS OF CHINA 

EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
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3 



4 PUBLISHERS ANNOUNCEMENT. 

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INTRODUCTION. 



Thomas De Quincey is among the unique personali- 
ties in modern English literature. With a countenance 
remarkable for its intellectual quality and every appear- 
ance of high breeding, his smallness of stature was soon 
forgotten when his conversational powers, in which lie 
excelled, exercised their fascination over the listener. 

In like manner, one forgets, while reading his volumi- 
nous writings, that he was an opium eater for many 
years of his life; and, were it not for his autobiographic 
sketches, including "The Confessions of an English Opium 
Eater" and "Suspiria," there would be little suspicion that 
his life was "shadowed by one great cloud, which would 
have fatally obscured any ordinary intellect." 

The materials for a description of his early years, and 
of his struggle with and final victory over the "narcotic 
devil," are drawn from his own writings, mainly from 
those which have been mentioned. 

Ample data, however, of his literary habits are given in 
the reminiscences of his friends, who regarded him as a 
great literary genius. 

We will consider the incidents of his career chiefly as 
they bear a relation to his works, in which scholarship, 



6 THOMA8 DE QUINCEY. 

imagination, wit, and liumor combine to make him one of 
the most attractive, as well as instructive, writers of his 
period. 

That period is justly celebrated for its constellation of 
famous authors, often styled the Lake Poets of England, 
living as they did among the beautiful scenery of the 
Westmoreland lakes. 

The father of De Quincey was a merchant, who died 
when his son was seven years old, leaving a comfortable 
inheritance to Ids children. Thomas was placed, by his 
father's will, under the care of four guardians, who sent 
him successively to several schools. At thirteen years of 
age he wrote Greek with ease; at fifteen, he could con- 
verse fluently in that language, and when at Eton he was 
the phenomenal scholar of his class. 

Being ready for the university in his sixteenth year, he 
requested his guardian, under whose sole care he had then 
come, to allow him to leave Eton. The guardian, a 
worthy but obstinate man, refused ; this disturbed the lad 
and touched his pride, so that on his seventeenth birthday 
he ran away, wandered through North Wales, and eventu- 
ally reached London, without money but determined to 
elude all pursuit. 

Now began a long agony of extremity and hunger, which 
lasted many months. Finally, he applied to a Jew, and, 
on the strength of his financial expectations, raised the 
money to carry him in pursuit of a classmate, who he 
hoped would aid him in his wish for a course at the 
university. 

His errand was fruitless; but soon a reconciliation, 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

effected partly by accident, was made with his friends, 
and his uncle sent him to Worcester College, Oxford, with 
an allowance of £100 a year. 

Unfortunately his abject, though voluntary, penury in 
London had so affected his constitution that he soon fell 
under the fearful habit of eating opium. 

In the first part of his "Confessions," entitled, "The 
Pleasures of Opium," he tells us that he experienced only 
enjoyable sensations from 1804 until 1812. After the 
latter year, his chapter on "The Pains of Opium" de- 
scribes the miseries into which the fearful habit plunged 
him, body and mind. These "Confessions" were first 
published in 1821, but were given to the world in their 
final form in 185G. 

It is not necessary to trace the series of struggles, 
relapses, and comparative escape at last, which checkered 
his life with reveries, moods, brilliant episodes, and 
periods of incapacity. So far as his literary career was 
affected by his use of opium, it must be said, that, while 
the best of his works are the result of his genius and 
industry, undoubtedly much of his impassioned prose, his 
dreamy and fantastic descriptions, his sense of the vast 
and the vague, may be attributed to the effect upon his 
brain of the pernicious drug. 

It is a marvel that, notwithstanding the phantoms, 
incommunicable in words, which haunted his mind, he 
preserved to the last a fine literary instinct and a sweet- 
ness and courtesy of manner which lend a charm to almost 
everything he wrote. 

Even in his autobiographical writings, he maintained a 



8 THOMAS DE QUINOEY. 

self-respect, which is evident in the purity of his imagery 
and in the high moral tone of his sentiments. There was 
a certain reticence which respected his own private rights 
as a man, and which calls for the reader's extenuation 
rather than hasty condemnation of his fault. His choice 
of subjects was sometimes on the unprofitable side, as in 
his ingenious defense of Judas Iscariot, his " Murder as a 
Fine Art," and in "The Vision of Sudden Death." His 
discursive style, in much of his writing, seems involved 
and incomplete, and his idealizing tendency often leads 
to exaggeration ; but, take him all in all, De Quincey well 
merits what Christopher ]N'orth said of him in "Noctes 
Ambrosianse, " that "with all his logic,(_he is a man of 
imagination,' and, bating a little formal pedantry now and 
then, a master of the English language ; God bless him ! " 

Archdeacon Hare calls him "the great logician of our 
times." Coleridge, addicted to the same opium habit, 
thought much of his literary ability. Both Coleridge and 
De Quincey were equally gifted in the flow and the breadth 
of their conversation; but the great author of "Aids to 
Reflection " was much more averse to the labors of compo- 
sition than De Quincey. 

Both were scholars at Eton, although Coleridge was 
thirteen years older than his friend, having been born in 
1772, and De Quincey in 1785 (at Greenheys, near Man- 
chester). They were graduated from different universities, 
Coleridge being a Cambridge and De Quincey an Oxford 
man. They did not meet until 1807; but when De Quincey 
settled at Grasmere, in 1809 (holding a cottage tliere for 
twenty-seven years), he was at once admitted into the 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

charmed circle of his literary neighbors, among whom 
Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, and Charles Lloyd were 
preeminent. 

Charles Lamb, who had befriended him in his early 
days, was also one of the choice spirits whom he termed 
"princely" both in generosity and friendship. 

De Quincey was married in 1816. He had five sons 
and three daughters. After his removal to Scotland, he 
edited, in 1819, The Westmoreland Gazette, but in 1821, a 
large part of his patrimony having wasted away, he went 
to London and remained till 1824, writing and publish- 
ing his "Confessions," and contributing to The London 
Magazine. 

After vibrating between London and Grasmere, we find 
him in 1828 at Edinburgh, where he wrote for Blackwood\^ 
Magazine and other reviews, and where he joined the 
famous coterie, consisting of John Wilson (Christopher 
North), Hogg (the Ettrick Shepherd), and others, whose 
wise (and foolish) "convivia" are chronicled in the cele- 
brated "Noctes Ambrosianse." 

For convenience, he had his family with him in Edin- 
burgh several years, still keeping the Grasmere cottage. 
His wife died in 1837, when his eldest daughter became 
the able mistress of the household. In 1840 he accom- 
panied his daughters to Lasswade, which was his home 
for the rest of his life, although he spent about three years 
in astronomical researches in Glasgow and was often in 
Edinburgh. He died at Edinburgh in the seventy-fifth 
year of his age, December 8, 1859. 

The range of De Quincey 's literary works is very wide; 



10 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

liistorical, biographical, theological, and miscellaneous, 
not to speak of his fanciful and mystic lucubrations, all 
of which form a notable part of the English literature 
of the early half of the nineteenth century. His eccen- 
tricities were as marked as his genius. He gave away 
money lavishly, and polished his shillings before he 
handed them to the beggars. He left bushels of papers 
in lodging houses, and forgot where he had deposited 
them. He was often "snowed in" by heaps of useless 
journals and manuscripts in his rooms, and was Bohe- 
mian in his impulses and manners. 

But when his antiquated figure, quaintly dressed, was 
seen no more in the streets of old Edinburgh, the critics 
might complain of his discursive tendency and infinite 
subtlety, but no one could deny that he possessed the 
musical element in style, a mystic beauty of imagery, a 
conscience in literary effort, and a charm in simple nar- 
ration, which few writers of the English language have 
equaled and none have excelled. 

That his heart was gentle is proved by his attachment 
to children and his generosity to the poor; that, in tlie 
midst of his failings and eccentricities, his sensibilities 
were elevated and pure, is gathered from his acts and 
words, as when he said of the animals and birds which 
he loved, "The instincts of all the inferior creatures are 
now holy in my eyes; for, like reason's self, they have 
their origin in love." And so we leave him gently and 
kindly, with his biographer's remark, "JVi7 tangit quod 
non ornai." 



THE AET OF NARRATION 



AS ILLUSTRATED IN 



DE QUINCEY'S "FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE." 



In prose literature, the art of narration is distinct by 
itself. It may be joined with other forms of composition, 
in historical and biographical writing, and in the essay; 
but there are rules which regulate it that cannot be over- 
looked. 

Few possess the gift of story-telling in perfection. The 
art may be acquired by study and practice ; only the rare 
literary genius can possess it without laborious effort. 

Narration, pure and simple, is not historical composi- 
tion, although it may give historical events. The historian 
employs generalization and argument, and sums uj) the 
conclusions of authorities. He ought not to argue as a 
partisan. De Quincey censures the historian Hume for 
doing this. Neither should he encumber his work with 
gossipy tales, becoming, as De Quincey styles Suetonius, 
author of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, "a curious 
collector of anecdotage." But the historian, as such, may 
use reasoning and logic, of which the narrator has little 
need. 

The writer of narrative must have events to tell, and be 

able to tell them in a way that will hold the reader's 

11 



12 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

interest to the end. He will arrange his materials in a 
natural sequence, and have the whole story in his mind as 
he writes, so as to avoid repetition and a premature dis- 
closure of the ending of his story. 

But rhetorical writing, elocution, argument, and disser- 
tation are foreign to his purpose. Long-winded disquisi- 
tions and digressions are out of place in narration. There 
is a vast difference between a classic flow of language and 
the spinning of long yarns. 

The narrator's vocabulary need not be very large, but 
he will have full command of appropriate words. I)e 
Quincey said that in early life he labored under a " peculiar 
penury of words." Later on, he acquired sufficient com- 
mand of language, and was sometimes perplexed by an 
exuberance of expressive terms. 

Long sentences may be allowed in narration, if the 
language is clear and the connectives are well chosen. But 
parenthetical clauses ought generally to be avoided as 
inelegant in literary style, and especially in this depart- 
ment of composition. "A parenthesis is a chasm," says 
a critic of style, "across which it is hard for the reader 
to leap." 

Classical allusions are permitted in narration when they 
reinforce the writer's descriptions, or help to explain his 
story; never should they be used for mere embellishment. 
An acquaintance with the best Latin and Greek authors is, 
however, of advantage, inasmuch as writers like Herodotus, 
Homer in some parts of the "Hiad," and Caesar in his 
"Commentaries," are models of this form of composition. 

De Quincey was familiar from his youth with the ancient 



THE ART OF NARRATION. 13 

classics, and their influence on him gave precision and 
elegance to his style. But he uses some words of foreign 
derivation where Saxon would have been more to the point. 
Coleridge sacrificed much to his German models, and thereby 
led his readers into many a mystic maze. 

Clearness and simplicity are indispensable to good nar- 
ration. What Sydney Smith calls "obvious language" is 
essential, because no narrative can be perfect which com- 
pels the reader to read a sentence twice before he can get 
at the meaning of it. Herbert Spencer advises literary 
men to "economize the mental force of their readers"; 
and in no department of literature is this advice more to 
be heeded than in the telling of a story. 

Simplicity in the manner of describing men and events 
makes narration a delight. Long descriptions of scenery, 
which do not add to the understanding of the plot, are 
generally skipped by the reader, who is promised a story 
and who does not want to be delayed by fine writing in 
the progress of the tale. An unaffected style is always 
graceful and acceptable, especially when the writer pro- 
fesses to be a narrator of facts. 

J^ow, De Quincey may not be the writer who will give 
the best model in all respects for a perfect English style; 
he writes in various moods, and sometimes wanders away 
into strange vagaries of expression. But he certainly 
offers a very fair example of narration in his story of The 
Eevolt of the Tartars and their tragic flight. Here, at 
least, there is no " soaring in a winged chariot on a figura- 
tive vocabulary." He has declared that, "through a circle 
of prodigious reading, he had never known a writer who 



14 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

did not sometiiiics violate the accidence or syntax of the 
English language," so that we cannot expect him to be the 
sole exception to this general affirmation. In the paper, 
however, which we are about to study, the art of narration 
is brought very near perfection. 

The story flows easily along. It is not broken up by 
irrelevant dissertations on things that are foreign to it. 
As you read, Avith sustained interest to the end, you do 
not think of the writer, who also seems to have forgotten 
himself in his work, and you mind what he is telling 
rather than how he is telling it. 

He may have erred in the first few prefatory i)ages, 
which naturally belong at the end of the story because 
they contain remarks about things which the reader can 
understand only as he follows the narrative itself. 

But, beginning with the story proper at the sentence 
" On the 21st of January, 1761 " (p. 21), we find few if any 
violations of the canons laid down for this kind of literary 
work. 

There are some long paragraphs. Take, for example, the 
description (j). 22) of the young Kalmuck prince, Oubacha; 
but notice how skillfully the author uses the connectives of 
the clauses, giving the reader no trouble with the length 
of the whole sentence. 

The writer introduces to the reader early in the narrative 
all that needs to be said about the character of the treach- 
erous jDretender, Zebek-Dorchi. This is art, for it obviates 
the necessity for any further statement, in this respect, 
iis the story progresses. 

Almost the only place in which the narrator volunteers 



THE AUT OF NARRATION. 15 

an opinion of Ids own is (p. 26) in the few paragraphs 
beginning, "He, a worm as he was," etc., — an allowable 
analysis of the traitor's mental attitude, because, without 
this explanation, the traitor's cause would seem utterly 
reckless and foolhardy. 

Now and then, as in the sentence (p. 31) "Human 
experience gives evidence," etc., the author departs from 
pure narration and states a general proposition. In this 
case, as the proposition is by no means a truism, it should 
not have been interpolated, because it needs proofs which 
this is not the place to give. 

The slight digression (p. 31) on the war between 
Russia and the Sultan is allowable, because it explains 
why Oubacha contributed more than his quota of cavalry 
on the eve of the intended flight, and because it is neces- 
sary to show the favorable and unfavorable results of his 
splendid victories over the Turks. These results were 
unfavorable to the scheme in hand, because the jealousy 
and hostility of certain tribes were aroused against the 
migrating Kalmucks; and they were favorable to the 
scheme, by preparing the minds of the Kalmucks them- 
selves to perceive the necessity of instant departure. 

Take note, now, how the narrator, after depicting 
Zebek's shrewd arraignment of Russia's tyranny before 
the assembled representatives of the Kalmuck tribes 
(pp. 38-41), hurries on the story, till on the 5th of Jan- 
uary, 1762 (see p. 41), the multitudes begin their migra- 
tion. 

From this point onward, the reader is led from one scene 
of horror to another, throuc^h the awful series of calami- 



16 THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 

ties; worse, as the writer declares, than the inroads of 
Huns, Avars, or Mongol Tartars brought upon their vic- 
tims; worse than the sufferings of Napoleon's army in 
the retreat from Moscow, which the writer delays but a 
moment to consider. 

It is a lengthy narrative; yet it cannot be shortened, in 
justice to the subject and the reader's demand for details. 
A single allusion to Xerxes (p. 56) is all that this lover 
of classic legend allows himself to make. 

The episode (p. 60) which describes the rescue of 
Oubacha, the Khan, from the treachery of his unprinci- 
pled cousin, Zebek, is a thrilling incident, which heightens 
the description of this agonizing flight of the wretched 
Kalmucks. 

It is at this point, by a stroke of genius, that the nar- 
rator relieves the reader's mind from its terrible strain by 
bringing on the scene, before the final catastrophe at the 
Lake of Tengis, Kien Long, the Emperor of China, whose 
munificence relieved the necessities of the survivors of the 
flight, and gave them territorial possessions under his 
protection. 

Without this relief for a moment, the overwhelming 
horrors of the carnage at the bloody lake would be insup- 
portable to the reader, leaving him in a tumult of inde- 
scribable emotions. 

Finally, when Zebek-Dorchi, the arch-traitor, is dis- 
posed of by assassination, at an imperial banquet, even 
poetic justice is satisfied, and the story-teller leaves the 
decimated Tartar tribe in the midst of quiet sylvan 
scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life and the loveliness 



THE ART OF NARRATION. 17 

of Arcadian beauty, where their descendants remain unto 
this day. 

In all this De Quincey has shown the art of a true nar- 
rator. The story which he tells is derived from veritable 
history. But his genius appears, in that, while the narra- 
tive does not deviate from historic fact, nor dress the 
characters in artificial garb, nor color the incidents with 
adventitious horrors, the reader is borne on to the end 
with ever-increasing interest, absorbed in the story with- 
out thinking of the style. 

It is plain, concise, classic, dealing with events as they 
occurred, and with men as they actually lived, fought, and 
suffered. The hand of a master has thus prepared in liter- 
ature, to the memory of the princely Oubacha and his 
afflicted countrymen, a monument more enduring than the 
mighty columns of granite and brass erected near the banks 
of the Ily, by the Chinese Emperor, to commemorate with 
appropriate inscriptions. 

The Flight of a Tartar Tribe. 



DE QUINCEYVS 
FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 



3i<K< 



There is no great event in modern history, or, perhaps 
it may be said more broadly, none in all history from its 
earliest records, less generally known, or more striking to 
the imagination, than the flight eastwards of a principal 
Tartar nation across the boundless steppes of Asia in the 5 
latter half of the last century. The terminus a quo of this 
flight and the terminus ad quern are equally magniflcent, 
— the mightiest of Christian thrones being the one, the 
mightiest of Pagan the other. And the grandeur of these two 
terminal objects is harmoniously supported by the romantic 10 
circumstances of the flight. In the abruptness of its com- 
mencement and the flerce velocity of its execution, we read 
an expression of the wild, barbaric character of those who 
conducted the movement. In the unity of purpose connect- 
ing this myriad of wills, and in the blind but unerring aim 15 
at a mark so remote, there is something which recalls to the 
mind those almighty instincts that propel the migrations of 
the swallow and the lemming, or the life-withering marches 
of the locust. Then, again, in the gloomy vengeance of Eussia 
and her vast artillery, which hung upon the rear and the 20 
skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of Miltonic 
images, — such, for instance, as that of the solitary hand 
pursuing through desert spaces and through ancient chaos 
a rebellious host, and overtaking with volleying thunders 

19 



20 DE quincey's 

those who believed themselves already within the security 
of darkness and of distance. 

We shall have occasion, further on, to compare this event 
with other great national catastrophes as to the magnitude 

5 of the suffering; but it may also challenge a comparison 
with similar events under another relation, viz., as to its 
dramatic capabilities. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or 
history, can sustain a close collation with this as to the 
complexity of its separate interests. The great outline of 

10 the enterprise, taken in connection with the operative 
motives, hidden or avowed, and the religious sanctions 
under which it was pursued, give to the case a triple char- 
acter : First, That of a consjnracy, with as close a unity in 
the incidents, and as much of a personal interest in the 

15 moving characters, with line dramatic contrasts, as belongs 
to Venice Preserved or to the Fiesco of Schiller. Secondly, 
That of a great military expedition, offering the same roman- 
tic features of vast distances to be traversed, vast reverses 
to be sustained, untried routes, enemies obscurely ascer- 

20 tained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark 
the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses; the anabasis of the 
younger Cyrus, and the subsequent retreat of the ten thou- 
sand to the Black Sea; the Parthian expeditions of the 
E-omans, especially those of Crassus and Julian; or (as 

25 more disastrous than any of them, and, in point of space 
as well as in amount of forces, more extensive) the Russian 
anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon. Thirdly, That of a 
religions exodus, authorized by an oracle venerated through- 
out many nations of Asia, — an exodus, therefore, in so far 

30 resembling the great scriptural exodus of the Israelites 
under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar 
distinction of carrying along with them their entire fami- 
lies, women, children, slaves, their herds of cattle and of 
sheep, their horses and their camels. 

35 This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 21 

with a more comprehensive interest. But the dramatic 
interest which we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 
representation, depends partly upon the marked variety 
and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and 
partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even r> 
the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy 
deserts, are not beyond the scale of our modern representa- 
tive powers as often called into action in the theatres both 
of Paris and London; and the series of situations unfolded, 
beginning with the general conflagration on the Wolga, pass- lo 
ing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it liter- 
ally was in its commencement), to the Tartar siege of the 
Eussian fortress Koulagina; the bloody engagement with 
the Cossacks in the mountain passes at Ouchim; the sur- 
prisal by the Bashkirs and the advanced posts of the Rus- 15 
sian army at Torgau; the private conspiracy at this point 
against the khan; the long succession of running fights; 
the parting massacres at the Lake of Tengis under the eyes 
of the Chinese; and, finally, the tragical retribution to 
Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor, 20 
— all these situations communicate a scenical animation to 
the wild romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher 
and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authen- 
tic history, commemorating a great revolution for good and 
for evil in the fortunes of a whole people, — a people semi- 25 
barbarous, but simple-hearted and of ancient descent. 

On the 21st of January, 1761, the young Prince Oubacha 
assumed the sceptre of the Kalmucks upon the death of his 
father. Some part of the power attached to this dignity he 
had already wielded since his fourteenth year, in quality of .30 
vice-khan, by the express appointment and with the avowed 
support of the Russian government. He was now about 
eighteen years of age, amiable in his personal character, 
and not without titles to respect in his public character as 



22 , DE quincey's 

a sovereign prince. In times more peaceable, and amongst 
a people more entirely civilized or more humanized by reli- 
gion, it is even probable that he- might have discharged his 
high duties with considerable distinction. But his lot was 

5 thrown upon stormy times, and a most difficult crisis amongst 
tribes whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing 
forms of superstition, and by a ^rationality as well as an 
inflated conceit of their own merit absolutely unparalleled; 
whilst the circumstances of their hard and trying position 

10 under the jealous surveillance of an irresistible lord para- 
mount, in the person of the Russian Czar, gave a fiercer 
edge to the natural unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposi- 
tion, and irritated its gloomier qualities into action under 
the restless impulses of suspicion and permanent distrust. 

15 Ko prince could hope for a cordial allegiance from his sub- 
jects or a peaceful reign under the circumstances of the 
case; for the dilemma in which a Kalmuck ruler stood at 
present was of this nature : wanting the sanction and sup- 
port of the Czar, he was inevitably too weak from without 

20 to command confidence from his subjects, or resistance to 
his competitors : on the other hand, with this kind of sup- 
port, and deriving his title in any degree from the favor 
of the imperial court, he became almost in that extent an 
object of hatred at home and within the whole compass of 

25 his own territory. He was at once an object of hatred for 
the past, being a living monument of national independence 
ignominiously surrendered, and an object of jealousy for 
the future, as one who had already advertised himself to 
be a fitting tool for the ultimate purposes (whatsoever 

30 those might prove to be) of the Russian .^orrt.- Coming 
himself to the Kalmuck sceptre under the- ^aviest weight 
of prejudice from the unfortunate circumstances of his 
position, it might have been expected that Oubacha would 
have been pre-eminently an object of detestation; for, 

35 besides his known dependence upon the cabinet of St. 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 23 

Petersburg, the direct line of succession had been set 
aside, and the principle of inheritance violently suspended, 
in favor of his own father, so recently as nineteen years 
before the era of his own accession, consequently within 
the lively remembrance of the existing generation. He 5 
therefore, almost equally with his father, stood within the 
full current of the national prejudices, and might have an- 
ticipated the most pointed hostility. But it was not so: 
such are the caprices in human affairs that he was even, in 
a moderate sense, popular, — a benefit which wore the more lo 
cheering aspect and the promises of permanence, inasmuch 
as he owed it exclusively to his personal qualities of kind- 
ness and affability, as well as to the beneficence of his gov- 
ernment. On the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for 
prosperity at the outset of his reign, he met with a rival in 15 
popular favor, almost a competitor, in the person of Zebek- 
Dorchi, a prince with considerable pretensions to the throne, 
and perhaps, it might be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek- 
Dorchi was a direct descendant of the same royal house 
as himself, through a different branch. On public grounds 20 
his claim stood, perhaps, on a footing equally good witli 
that of Oubacha; whilst his personal qualities, even in those 
aspects which seemed to a philosophical observer most odi- 
ous and repulsive, promised the most effectual aid to the 
dark purposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and were 25 
generally fitted to win a popular support precisely in those 
points where Oubacha was most defective. He was much 
superior in external appearance to his rival on the throne, 
and so far better qualified to win the good opinion of a 
semi-barb? r.on« people; whilst his dark intellectual qualities 30 
of Machiavt an dissimulation, profound hypocrisy, and 
perfidy which knew no touch of remorse, were admirably 
calculated to sustain any ground which he might win from 
the simple-hearted people with whom he had to deal, and 
from the frank carelessness of his unconscious competitor. 35 



24 DE quincey's 

At the very outset of his treacherous career, Zebek- 
Dorchi was sagacious enough to perceive that nothing could 
be gained by open declaration of hostility to the reigning 
prince : the choice had been a deliberate act on the part of 

.') Russia, and Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to recall 
her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. Openly, 
therefore, to have declared his enmity towards his relative 
on the throne could have had no effect but that of arming 
suspicions against his own ulterior purposes in a quarter 

10 where it was most essential to his interest that for the 
present all suspicion should be hoodwinked. Accordingly, 
after much meditation, the course he took for opening his 
snares was this : He raised a rumor that his own life was 
in danger from the plots of several saissang (that is, Kal- 

15 muck nobles) who were leagued together under an oath to 
assassinate him; and immediately after, assuming a well- 
counterfeited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, followed by 
sixty-iive tents. From this place he kept up a correspond- 
ence with the imperial court, and, by way of soliciting his 

20 cause more effectually, he soon repaired in j^erson to St. 
Petersburg. Once admitted to personal conferences with 
the cabinet, he found no difficulty in winning over the 
Russian councils to a concurrence with some of his politi- 
cal views, and thus covertly introducing the point of that 

25 wedge which was finally to accomplish his purposes. In 
particular, he persuaded the Russian government to make 
a very important alteration in the constitution of the Kal- 
muck state council, which in effect reorganized the whole 
political condition of the state and disturbed the balance of 

30 power as previously adjusted. Of this council, in the Kal- 
muck language called sarga, there were eight members, 
called sargatcM; and hitherto it had been the custom that 
these eight members should be entirely subordinate to the 
khan, holding, in fact, the ministerial character of secre- 

35taries and assistants, )mt in no respect ranking as co-ordi- 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 25 

nate authorities. That had produced some inconveniences 
in former reigns ; and it was easy for Zebek-Dorchi to point 
the jealousy of the Russian court to others more serious 
which might arise in future circumstances of war or other 
contingencies. It was resolved, therefore, to place the 5 
saryatchi henceforward on a footing of perfect indepen- 
dence, and therefore (as regarded responsibility) on a footing 
of equality with the khan. Their independence, however, 
had respect only to their own sovereign; for towards Rus- 
sia they were placed in a new attitude of direct duty and 10 
accountability by the creation in their favor of small pen- 
sions (three hundred roubles a year), which, however, to a 
Kalmuck of that day, were more considerable than might 
be supposed,- and had a further value as marks of honorary 
distinction emanating from a great empress. Thus far the 15 
purposes of Zebek-Dorchi were served effectually for the 
moment ; but apparently it was only for the moment, since, 
in the further development of his plots, this very depend- 
ency upon Russian influence would be the most serious 
obstacle in his way. There was, however, another point 20 
carried, which outweighed all inferior considerations, as it 
gave him a power of setting aside discretionally whatsoever 
should arise to disturb his plots : he was himself appointed 
president and controller of the sargatchi. The Russian 
court had been aware of his high pretensions by birth, and 25 
hoped by this promotion to satisfy the ambition which, in 
some degree, was acknowledged to be a reasonable passion 
for any man occupying his situation. 

Having thus completely blindfolded the cabinet of Rus- 
sia, Zebek-Dorchi proceeded in his new character to fulfil 30 
his political mission with the khan of the Kalmucks. So 
artfully did he prepare the road for his favorable reception 
at the court of this prince, that he was at once and univer- 
sally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the 
councillors were so much additional wealth poured into the 35 



26 DE quincey's 

Tartar exchequer: as to the ties of dependency thus cre- 
ated, experience had not yet enlightened these simple 
tribes as to that result. And that he himself should be 
the chief of these mercenary councillors was so far from 

5 being charged upon Zebek as any offence, or any ground of 
suspicion, that his relative the khan returned him hearty 
thanks for his services, under the belief that he could have 
accepted this appointment only with a view to keep out 
other and more unwelcome pretenders, who would not have 

10 had the same motives of consanguinity or friendship for 
executing its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kal- 
mucks. The first use which he made of his new functions 
about the khan's person was to attack the court of Eussia, 
by a romantic villainy not easy to be credited, for those 

15 very acts of interference with the council which he himself 
had prompted. This was a dangerous step; but it was in- 
dispensable to his farther advance upon the gloomy path 
which he had traced out for liimself. A triple vengeance 
was what he meditated: (1) upon the Russian cabinet, for 

20 having undervalued his own pretensions to the throne; 
(2) upon his amiable rival, for having supplanted him; 
and (3) upon all those of the nobility who had manifested 
their sense of his weakness by their neglect, or their sense 
of his perfidious character by their suspicions. Here was 

25a colossal outline of wickedness; and by one in his situa- 
tion, feeble (as it might seem) for the accomplishment of 
its humblest parts, how was the total edifice to be reared 
in its comprehensive grandeur? He, a worm as he was, 
could he venture to assail the mighty behemoth of Mus- 

30covy, the potentate who counted three hundred languages 
around the footsteps of his throne, and from whose "lion 
ramp" recoiled alike "baptized and infidel," — Christen- 
dom on the one side, strong by her intellect and her organ- 
ization, and the "barbaric East" on the other, with her 

35 unnumbered numbers? The match was a monstrous one; 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 27 

but in its very monstrosity there lay this germ bf encour- 
agement, — that it could not be suspected. The very hope- 
lessness of the scheme grounded his hope; and he resolved 
to execute a vengeance which should involve, as it were, 
in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom he judged 5 
to be his enemies. That vengeance lay in detaching from 
the liLissian Empire the whole Kalmuck nation, and break- 
ing up that system of intercourse which had thus far been 
benehcial to both. This last was a consideration which 
moved him but little. True it was that Russia to the Kal- 10 
mucks had secured lands and extensive pasturage; true it 
was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to Kussia had furnished 
a powerful cavalry. But the latter loss would be part of 
his triumph, and the former might be more than compen- 
sated in other climates, under other sovereigns. Here was 15 
a scheme, which, in its final accomplishment, ^\f)uld avenge 
him bitterly on the Czarina, and in the course of its accom- 
plishment might furnish him with ample occasions for re- 
moving his other enemies. It may be readily supposed, 
indeed, that he who coald deliberately raise his eyes to the 20 
Russian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel with him- 
self was not likely to feel much anxiety about Kalmuck 
enemies of whatever rank. He took his resolution, there- 
fore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this astonishing trans- 
lation of an ancient people across the pathless deserts of 25 
Central Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers rarely 
furnished with bridges, and of which tlie fords were known 
only to those who might think it for their interest to con- 
ceal them, through many nations inhospitable or hostile, — 
frost and snow around them (from the necessity of com- 30 
mencing their flight in the winter), famine in their front, 
and the sabre, or even the artillery, of an offended and 
mighty empress hanging upon their rear for thousands of 
miles. But what was to be their final mark, the port of 
shelter after so fearful a course of wandering? Two things 35 



28 DE quincey's 

were evicrent: it must be some power at a great distance 
from Eussi^ so as to make return even in that view hope- 
less; and it must be a power of sufficient rank to insure 
them protection from any hostile efforts on the part of the 

:> Czarina for reclaiming them or for chastising their revolt. 
Both conditions were united obviously in the person of 
Kien Long, the reigning Emperor of China, who was fur- 
ther recommended to them by his respect for the head of 
their religion. To China, therefore, and, as their hrst 

10 rendezvous, to the shadow of the great Chinese Wall, it 

was settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight. 

Next came the question of time : When should the flight 

commence? and, finally, the more delicate question as to 

the choice of accomplices. To extend the knowledge of 

15 the conspiracy too far was to insure its betrayal to the 
Russian gc^ernment. Yet, at some stage of the prepara- 
tions it was evident that a very extensive confidence must 
be made, because in no other way could the mass of the 
Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnish their families 

20 with the requisite equipments for so long a migration. 
This critical step, however, it was resolved to defer up to 
the latest possible moment, and at all events to make no 
general communication on the subject until the time of 
departure should be definitely settled. In the meantime 

25 Zebek admitted only three persons to his confidence, of 
whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, was almost necessarily 
one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat feeble char- 
acter, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one 
of his active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he 

oO admitted to an unreserved participation in his counsels 
were two only, — the great lama among the Kalmucks, and 
his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some 
tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, recommended 
to his favor not so much by any strength of talent corre- 

;J5 sponding to the occasion, as by his blind devotion to him- 



FLIGHT OF A TAUTAK Till BE. 29 

self and his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of 
his claughtei' and his son-in-law to the throne of a sovereign 
prince. A titnlar prince, Zebek already was; bnt this dig- 
nity, without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, 
seemed but an empty sound to both of these ambitious 5 
rivals. The other accomplice, whose name was Loosang- 
Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of lama, or Kalmuck 
pontiff, was a person of far -more distinguished pretensions. 
He had something of the same gloomy and terrific pride 
which marked the character of Zebek himself, manifesting lo 
also the same energy, accompanied by the same unfaltering 
cruelty, and a natural facility of dissimulation even more 
profound. It was l)y this man that tlie other question was 
settled as to the time for giving effect to their designs. 
His own pontifical character had suggested to him, that in 15 
order to strengthen their influence with the vast mob of 
simple-minded men whom they were to lead into a howling 
wilderness, after persuading them to lay desolate their own 
ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they should be 
able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of 20 
God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done 
by addressing themselves to the great head of their reli- 
gion, — the dalai-lama of Thibet. Him they easily per 
suaded to countenance their schemes; and an oracle was 
delivered solemnly at Thibet, to the effect that no ultimate 25 
prosperity would attend this great exodus unless it were 
pursued through the years of the tiger and the hare. Now, 
the Kalmuck custom is to distinguish their years by attach- 
ing to each a denomination taken from one of twelve ani- 
mals, the exact order of succession being absolutely fixed ; so 
so that the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a 
dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the 
tiger were suffered to escape them, in that case the expedi- 
tion must be delayed for twelve years more; within which 
period, even were no other unfavorable changes to arise, it 35 



30 DE quincey's 

was pretty well foreseen that the Russian government would 
take the most effectual means for bridling their vagrant 
propensities by a ring fence of forts, or military posts, to 
say nothing of the still readier plan for securing their fidel- 
6 ity (a plan already talked of in all quarters) by exacting 
a large body of hostages selected from the families of the 
most influential nobles. On these cogent considerations it 
was solemnly determined that this terrific experiment should 
be made in the next year of the tiger, which happened to 

10 fall upon the Christian year 1771. With respect to the 
month, there was, unhappily for the Kalmucks, even less 
latitude allowed to their choice than with respect to the 
year. It was absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, 
that the different divisions of the nation, which pastured 

15 their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should have the 
means of effecting an instantaneous junction, because the 
danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the impe- 
rial armies Avas precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, 
from the want of bridges, or sufficient river craft for trans- 

20 porting so vast a body of men, the sole means which could 
be depended upon (especially where so many women, chil- 
dren, and camels were concerned) was ice; and this, in a 
state of sufiicient firmness, could not be absolutely counted 
upon before the month of January. Hence it happened 

25 that this astonishing exodus of a whole nation — before so 
much as a whisper of the design had begun to circulate 
amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even 
suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction — 
had been definitively appointed for January of the year 1771 ; 

:^oand, almost up to the Christmas of 1770, the poor, simple 
Kalmuck herdsmen and their families were going nightly to 
their peaceful beds without even dreaming that the fiat had 
already gone forth from their rulers, consigning those quiet 
abodes, together with the peace and comfort which reigned 

o5 within them, to a withering desolation, now close at liand. 



FLIGHT OF A TAIITAK TUII5K. 31 

Meantime war raged on a great scale between llussia and 
the Sultan; and, nntil the time arrived for throwing ott' 
their vassalage, it was necessary that Oubacha should con- 
tribute his usual contingent of martial aid. Nay, it had 
unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute n 
much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives 
ample evidence that in some mysterious and unaccountable 
way no great design is ever agitated, no matter how few or 
how faithful may be the participators, but that some pre- 
sentiment, some dim misgiving, is kindled amongst those lo 
whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it 
might have happened, certain it is that already, when as 
yet no syllable of the conspiracy had been breathed to 
any man whose very existence was not staked upon its con- 
cealment, nevertheless some vague and uneasy jealousy had 15 
arisen in the Kussian cabinet as to the future schemes of 
the Kalmuck khan; and very probable it is, that, but for 
the war then raging and the consequent prudence of con- 
ciliating a very important vassal, or at least of abstaining 
from what would powerfully alienate him, even at that 20 
moment such measures would have been adopted as must 
forever have intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight 
as were the jealousies of the imperial court, they had not 
escaped the Machiavellian eyes of Zebek and the lama; 
and under their guidance, Oubacha, bending to the circum- 25 
stances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the 
llussian court with a policy corresponding to their own, 
strove by unusual zeal to efface the Czarina's unfavorable 
im})ressions. He enlarged the scale of his contributions, 
and that so prodigiously, that he absolutely carried to head-^o 
quarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry, fully 
equipped. Some go further, and rate the amount beyond 
forty thousand; but the smaller estimate is, at all events, 
within the truth. 

With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as o5 



32 DE quincey's 

light, the klitm went into the fiekl under great expecta- 
tions; and these he more than realized. Having the good 
fortune to be concerned with so ill-organized and disorderly 
a description of force as that which at all times composed 

5 the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along with 

his banners, gained many partial successes, and at last, in 

a pitched battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to 

him, with a loss of five thousand men left upon the field. 

These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in 

10 various ways against the impending revolt. Oubacha had 
now a strong motive, in the martial glory acquired, for 
continuing his connection with the empire in whose service 
he had won it, and by whom only it could be fully appreci- 
ated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire, — one 

15 of the paladins around the imperial throne; in China he 
would be nobody, or (worse than that) a mendicant alien, 
prostrate at the feet, and soliciting the precarious alms, of 
a prince with whom he had no connection. Besides, it 
might reasonably be expected that the Czarina, grateful for 

20 the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would 
confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient 
to anchor his hopes upon Eussia and to wean him frojn 
every possible seduction. These were the obvious sugges- 
tions of prudence and good sense to every man who stood 

25 neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The 
Czarina knew her obligations to the khan; but she did not 
acknowledge them. Wherefore? That is a mystery per- 
haps never to be explained. So it was, however. The 
khan went unhonored ; no ukase ever proclaimed his merits ; 

30 and perhaps, had he even been abundantly recompensed by 
Eussia, there were others who would have defeated these 
tendencies to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang, 
the lama, were pledged life-deep to prevent any accommo- 
dation; and their efforts were unfortunately seconded by 

35 those of their deadliest enemies. In the Eussian court 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 33 

there were at that time some great nobles preoccupied with 
feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, 
quite as strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor 
towards Eussia, and not, perhaps, so well founded. Just 
as much as the Kalmucks hated the Russian yoke, their 5 
galling assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain, 
as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, 
which too generally marked the Russian bearing and lan- 
guage, — but, above all, the insolent contempt, or even 
outrages, which the Russian governors or great military lo 
commandants tolerated in their followers towards the bar- 
barous religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kal- 
muck priesthood, — precisely in that extent did the ferocity 
of the Russian resentment, and their wrath at seeing the 
trampled worm turn, or attempt a feeble retaliation, react 15 
upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this crisis it is prob- 
able that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing the 
splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the 
Turks and Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian 
irritation; and it must have been through the intrigues of 20 
those nobles about her person who chiefly smarted under 
these feelings, that the Czarina could ever have lent herself 
to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this critical 
period towards the Kalmuck khan. That Czarina was no 
longer Elizabeth Petrowna: it was Catharine II., a princess 25 
who did not often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself 
as much as for others) in the measures of her government. 
She had soon ample reason for repenting of her false policy. 
Meantime, how much it must have co-operated with the 
other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in sustaining 30 
his determination to revolt, and how powerfully it must 
have assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in pre- 
paring the minds of their people to feel the necessity of 
this difficult enterprise, by arming their pride and their 
suspicions against the Russian government, through the 35 



34 DE quincey's 

keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of their 
insulted prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, 
and it has been confessed by candid Russians themselves 
when treating of this great dismemberment, that the con- 
5 duct of the E-ussian cabinet throughout the period of sus- 
pense, and during tlie crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck 
council, was exactly such as was most desirable for the 
purposes of the conspirators : it was such, in fact, as to set 
the seal to all their machinations, by supplying distinct 

10 evidences and official vouchers for what could otherwise 
have been, at the most, matters of doubtful suspicion and 
indirect presumption. 

Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and 
even allowing their weight so far as not at all to deny the 

15 injustice or the impolicy of the imperial ministers, it is 
contended by many persons who have reviewed the affair 
with a command of all the documents bearing on the case, 
more especially the letters or minutes of council subse- 
quently discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, 

20 and the important evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, 
who was carried off by the Kalmucks in their flight, that 
beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless for any purpose 
of impeding or even of delaying the revolt. He himself, 
indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific 

25 solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or even to 
slacken in his zeal; for Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firm- 
ness of his resolution under any unusual ]3ressure of alarm 
or difficulty, had, in the very earliest stage of the con- 
spiracy, availed himself of the khan's well-known supersti- 

;50 tion to engage him, by means of previous concert with the 
priests and their head the lama, in some dark and mysterious 
rites of consecration, terminating in oaths under such ter- 
rific sanctions as no Kalmuck would have courage to violate. 
As far, therefore, as regarded the personal share of the khan 

35 in what was to come, Zebek was entirely at his ease. He 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR T'ilBE. 35 

knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to 
the prosecution of the conspiracy that no honors within the 
Czarina's gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion ; and 
then, as to threats from the same quarter, he knew him to 
be sealed against tliose fears by otliers of a gloomier charac- r. 
ter, and better adapted to his peculiar temperament. For 
Oabaclia was a brave man as respected all bodily enemies 
or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and 
timid as the most superstitious of old women in facing the 
frowns of a priest, or under the vague anticipations ofio 
ghostly retributions. But had it been otherwise, and had 
there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady demeanor 
on the part of this prince at the approach of the critical 
moment, such were the changes already effected in the state 
of their domestic politics amongst the' Tartars by the under- 15 
mining arts of Zebek-Dorchi and his ally the lama, that very 
little importance would have attached to that doubt. All 
power was now effectually lodged in the hand of Zebek- 
Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of the Kal- 
muck sceptre; all measures of importance were submitted 20 
to his discretion, and nothing was finally resolved but under 
his dictation. This result he had brought about, in a year 
or two, by means sufficiently simple : first of all, by availing 
himself of the prejudice in his favor, so largely diffused 
among the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own title to the 25 
throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line from 
Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck khans, 
stood upon a better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived 
from a collateral branch; secondly, with respect to that sole 
advantage which Oubacha possessed above himself in the 30 
ratification of his title, by improving this difference between 
their situations to the disadvantage of his competitor, as 
one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an 
alien power at the price of his independence, which he 
himself (as he would have it understood) disdained to court; 35 



36 DE quincey's 

tliirdly, by his own talents and address, coupled with the 
ferocious energy of his moral character; fourthly, and per- 
haps in an equal degree, by the criminal facility and good 
nature of Oubacha; finally (which is remarkable enough, as 
5 illustrating the character of the man), by that very new 
modelling of the sarga, or privy council, which he had used 
as a principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation 
against the Russian government, whilst in reality he first 
had suggested the alteration to the empress, and he chiefly 

10 appropriated the political advantages which it was fitted to 
yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of the 
sargatchi, and as the pensions of the inferior sargatchi passed 
through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appoint- 
ments to his nomination, it may be easily supposed, that 

15 whatever power existed in the state capable of controlling 
the khan being held by the sarga under its new organiza- 
tion, and this body being completely under his influence, 
the final result was to throw all the functions of the state, 
whether nominally in the prince or in the council, sub- 

20stantially into the hands of this one man; whilst at the 
same time, from the strict league which he maintained 
with the lama, all the tliunders of his spiritual power were 
always ready to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply 
his incapacity in cases which he could not reach. 

25 But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty 
experiment. The day was drawing near on which the sig- 
nal was to be given for raising the standard of revolt, and, 
by a combined movement on both sides of the Wolga, for 
spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration that should 

30 wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately 
cities of their enemies over the breadth and length of tho^e 
great provinces in which their flocks were dispersed. The 
year of the tiger was now within one little month of its 
commencement. The fifth morning of that year was fixed 

35 for the fatal day when the fortunes and happiness of a 



FLIGHT OP A TARTAR TRIBE. 37 

whole nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's 
throw; and as yet that nation was in profound ignorance of 
the whole plan. The khan, such was the kindness of his 
nature, could not bring himself to make the revelation so 
urgently re(j^uired. It was clear, however, that this could n 
not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly 
upon himself. But where or how should this notitication 
be made, so as to exclude Russian hearers? After some 
deliberation the following plan was adopted: Couriers, it 
was contrived, should arrive in furious haste, one upon the lo 
heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the Kirghizes 
and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands at a point distant 
about one hundred and twenty miles. Thither all the 
Kalmuck families, according to immemorial custom, were 
required to send a separate representative; and there, 15 
accordingly, within three days, all appeared. The dis- 
tance, the solitary ground appointed for the rendezvous, 
the rapidity of tlie march, all tended to make it almost cer- 
tain that no Russian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then 
came forward. He did not waste many words upon rhetoric. 20 
He unfurled an immense sheet of parchment, visible from 
the outermost distance at wliich any of this vast crowd 
could stand. The total number amounted to eighty thou- 
sand: all saw, and many heard. They were told of the 
oppressions of Russia; of her pride and haughty disdain, 25 
evidenced towards them by a thousand acts; of her con- 
tempt for their religion; of her determination to reduce 
them to absolute slavery; of the preliminary measures she 
had already taken by erecting forts upon many of the great 
rivers of their neighborhood; of the ulterior intentions she 30 
thus announced to circumscribe their pastoral lands, until 
they would all be obliged to renounce their flocks and to col- 
lect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue jnechanical and 
servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the 
freeborn Tartar had always disdained. 



38 DE quincey's 

said the subtle prince, "shfe increases her military levies 
upon our population every year. We pour out our blood 
as young men in her defence, or more often in support of 
her insolent aggressions; and as old men we reap nothing 

5 from our sufferings, nor benefit by our survivorship where 
so many are sacrificed." At this point of his harangue, 
Zebek produced several papers (forged, as it is generally 
believed, by himself and the lama) containing projects of 
the Russian court for a general transfer of the eldest sons, 

10 taken en masse from the greatest Kalmuck families, to the 
imperial court. "Now, let this be once accomplished," he 
argued, " and there is an end of all useful resistance from 
that day forwards. Petitions we might make, or even 
remonstrances; as men of words, we might play a bold 

15 part : but for deeds, for that sort of language by which our 

ancestors were used to speak, holding us by such a chain, 

Russia would make a jest of our wishes, knowing full well 

that we should not dare to make any effectual movement." 

Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his 

20 vast audience, and having alarmed their fears by this pre- 
tended scheme against their firstborn (an artifice which was 
indispensable to his purpose, because it met beforehand every 
form of amendment to his proposal coming from the more 
moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have failed to 

25 insist upon trying the effect of bold addresses to the empress 
before resorting to any desperate extremity), Zebek-Dorchi 
opened his scheme of revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt; 
since any preparations reported at St. Petersburg would be 
a signal for the armies of Russia to cross into such positions 

30 from all parts of Asia as would effectually intercept their 
march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his 
audacity and his reliance upon the momentary excitement 
of the Kalmucks, the subtle prince did not venture at this 
stage of his seduction to make so startling a proposal as 

35 that of a flight to China. All that he held out for the 



FLIGHT OF A TAllTAR TRIBE. 39 

present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other great 
river, which they were to cross, and to take up a strong 
position on the farther bank, from which, as from a x)Ost 
of conscious security, they coukl hold a bolder language to 
the Czarina, and one which would have a better chance of r, 
winning a favorable audience. 

These things, in the irritated condition of the simple 
Tartars, passed by acclamation; and all returned homewards 
to push forward with the most furious speed the prepara- 
tions for their awful undertaking, liapid and energetic 10 
these of necessity were; and in that degree they became 
noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to 
be intermingled with the different hordes, either on com- 
mercial errands or as agents officially from the Itussian 
government, — some in a financial, others in a diplomatic 15 
character. 

Among these last (indeed, at the head of them) was a 
Russian of some distinction, by name Kichinskoi, a man 
memorable for his vanity, and memorable also as one of the 
many victims to the Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi 20 
had been sent by the empress as her envoy to overlook the 
conduct of the Kalmucks. He was styled the grand pristaw, 
or great commissioner, and was universally known among 
the Tartar tribes by this title. His mixed character of 
ambassador and of political stirveillant, combined Avith the 25 
dependent state of the Kalmucks, gave him a real weight 
in the Tartar councils, and might have given him a far 
greater had not his outrageous self-conceit and his arrogant 
confidence in his own authority, as due chiefly to his per- 
sonal qualities for command, led him into such harsh dis-30 
plays of power and menaces so odious to the Tartar pride 
as very soon made him an object of their profoundest malice. 
He had publicly insulted the khan; and upon making a 
communication to him to the effect that some reports began 
to circulate, and even to reach the empress, of a design in 35 



40 DE quincey's 

agitation to fly from the imperial dominions, he had ven- 
tured to say, " But this you dare not attempt. I hiugh at 
such rumors: yes, khan, I laugli at them to the empress; 
for you are a chained bear, and that you know." The khan 
5 turned away on his heel with marked disdain; and the 
pristaw, foaming at the mouth, continued to utter, amongst 
those of the khan's attendants who stayed behind to catcli 
his real sentiments in a moment of unguarded passion, all 
that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest to the most 

10 presumptuous of fools. It was now ascertained that sus- 
picions had arisen; but at the same time it was ascertained 
that the pristaw spoke no more than the truth in represent- 
ing himself to have discredited these suspicions. The fact 
was, that the mere infatuation of vanity made him believe 

15 that nothing could go on undetected by his all-piercing 
sagacity, and that no rebellion could prosper when rebuked 
by his commanding presence. The Tartars, therefore, pur- 
sued their preparations, confiding in the obstinate blindness 
of the grand pristaw, as in their perfect safeguard; and 

20 such it proved, to his own ruin as well as that of myriads 
beside. 

Christmas arrived; and a little before that time courier 
upon courier came dropping in, one upon the very heels of 
another, to St. Petersburg, assuring the Czarina that beyond 

25 all doubt the Kalmucks were in the very crisis of departure. 
These despatches came from the governor of Astraklian; 
and copies were instantly forwarded to Kichinskoi. Now, 
it happened that between this governor, a Russian named 
Beketoff, and the pristaw, had been an ancient feud. The 

30 very name of Beketoff inflamed his resentment; and no 
sooner did he see that hated name attached to the despatch 
than he felt himself confirmed in his former views with 
tenfold bigotry, and wrote instantly, in terms of the most 
pointed ridicule, against the new alarmist, pledging his own 

35 head upon the visionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, how- 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 41 

ever, was not to be put down by a few hard words or by 
ridicule. He persisted in his statements. The Russian 
ministry were confounded by the obstinacy of the dispu- 
tants ; and some were beginning even to treat the governor 
of Astrakhan as a bore and as the dupe of his own nervous 5 
terrors, when the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of 
January, which forever terminated the dispute, and put a 
seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes of unnumbered 
myriads. The governor of Astrakhan was the first to hear 
the news. Stung by the mixed furies of jealousy, of tri- lo 
umphant vengeance, and of anxious ambition, he sprang 
into his sledge, and at the rate of three hundred miles a day 
pursued his route to St. Petersburg, rushed into the impe- 
rial presence, announced the total realization of his worst 
predictions, and upon the confirmation of this intelligence 15 
by subsequent despatches from many different posts on the 
Wolga, he received an imperial commission to seize the 
person of his deluded enemy and to keep him in strict cap- 
tivity. These orders were eagerly fulfilled; and the unfor- 
tunate Kichinskoi soon afterward expired of grief and 20 
mortification in the gloomy solitude of a dungeon, — a 
victim to his own immeasurable vanity and the blinding 
self-delusions of a presumption that refused all warning. 

The governor of Astrakhan had been but too faithful a 
prophet. Perhaps even he was surprised at the suddenness 25 
with which the verification followed his reports. Precisely 
on the 5th of January, the day so solemnly appointed under 
religious sanctions by the lama, the Kalmucks on the east 
bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn of day 
assembling by troops and squadrons, and in the tumultuous 30 
movement of some great morning of battle. Tens of thou- 
sands continued moving off the ground at every half hour's 
interval. Women and children, to the amount of two hun- 
dred thousand and upwards, were placed upon wagons or 
upon camels, and drew off by masses of twenty thousand 35 



42 DE quincey's 

at once, i:)lacecl under suitable escorts, and continually 
swelled in numbers by other outlying bodies of the horde 
who kept falling in at various distances upon the first and 
the second day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of 

5 those who were the best mounted stayed behind the rest of 
the tribes, with purposes of devastation and plunder jnore 
violent than prudence justified or the amiable character of 
the khan could be supposed to approve. But in this, as in 
other instances, he was completely overruled by the malig- 

10 nant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first tempest of the 
desolating fury of the Tartars discharged itself upon their 
own habitations. But this, as cutting off all infirm looking 
backward from the hardships of their march, had been 
thought so necessary a measure by all the chieftains, that 

15 even Oubacha himself was the first to authorize the act by 
his own example. He seized a torch, previously prepared 
with materials the most durable as well as combustible, and 
steadily applied it to the timbers of his own palace. Noth- 
ing was saved from the general wreck except the portable 

20 part of the domestic utensils and that part of the woodwork 
Avhich could be applied to the manufacture of the long 
Tartar lances. This chapter in their memorable day's 
work being finished, and the whole of their villages 
throughout a district of ten thousand square miles in one 

2r. simultaneous blaze, the Tartars waited for further orders. 

These, it was intended, should have taken a character of 

valedictory vengeance, and thus have left behind to the 

Czarina a dreadful commentary upon the main motives of 

their flight. It was the purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that all 

30 the Eussian towns, churches, and buildings of every descrip- 
tion should be given up to pillage and destruction, and such 
treatment applied to the defenceless inhabitants as might 
naturally be expected from a fierce people already infuri- 
ated by the spectacle of their own outrages and by the 

35 bloody retaliations which they must necessarily have pro- 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 43 

voked. This part of the tragedy, however, was happily 
intercepted by a providential disappointment at the very . 
crisis of departure. It has been mentioned already that 
the motive for selecting the depth of winter as the season 
of flight (which otherwise was obviously the very worst 5 
possible) had been the impossibility of effecting a junction 
sufficiently rapid with the tribes on the west of the Wolga, 
m the absence of bridges, unless by a natural bridge of ice. 
For this one advantage the Kalmuck leaders had consented 
to aggravate by a thousandfold the calamities inevitable to 10 
a rapid Hight over boundless tracts of country with women, 
children, and herds of cattle, — for this one single advan- 
tage ; and yet, after all, it was lost. The reason never has 
been explained satisfactorily; but the fact was such. Some 
have said that the signals were not properly concerted for 15 
marking the moment of absolute departure; that is, for 
signifying whether the settled intention of the eastern 
Kalmucks might not have been suddenly interrupted by 
adverse intelligence. Others have supposed that the ice 
might not be equally strong on both sides of the river, and 20 
might even be generally insecure for the treading of heavy 
and heavily laden animals such as camels. But the pre- 
vailing notion is, that some accidental movements, on the 
3d and 4th of January, of Russian troops in the neighbor- 
hood of the western Kalmucks, though really having no 25 
reference to them or their plans, had been construed into 
certain signs that all was discovered, and that the prudence 
of the western chieftains, who, from situation, had never 
been exposed to those intrigues by which Zebek-Dorchi had 
practised upon the pride of the eastern tribes, now stepped 30 
in to save their people from ruin. Be the cause what it 
might, it is certain that the western Kalmucks were in some 
way prevented from forming the intended junction with 
their brethren of tlie opposite bank; and the result was, 
that at least one hundred thousand of these Tartars were 35 



44 DE quincey's 

left behind in Russia. This accident it was which saved 
their Ilussian neighbors universally from the desolation 
which else awaited them. One general massacre and con- 
flagration would assuredly have surprised them, to the utter 

5 extermination of their property, their houses, and them- 
selves, had it not been for this disappointment. But the 
eastern chieftains did not dare to put to hazard the safety 
of their brethren under the first impulse of the Czarina's 
vengeance for so dreadful a tragedy ; for, as they were well 

10 aware of too many circumstances by which she might dis- 
cover the concurrence of the western people in the general 
scheme of revolt, they justly feared that she would thence 
infer their concurrence also in the bloody events which 
marked its outset. 

15 Little did the western Kalmucks guess what reasons they 
also had for gratitude on account of an interposition so 
unexpected, and which, at the moment, they so generally 
deplored. Could they but have witnessed the thousandth 
part of the sufferings which overtook their eastern brethren 

20 in the first month of their sad flight, they would have 

blessed Heaven for their own narrow escape; and yet these 

sufferings of the first month were but a prelude or foretaste 

comparatively slight of those which afterwards succeeded. 

For now began to unroll the most awful series of calami- 

25 ties, and the most extensive, which is anywhere recorded 
to have visited the sons and daughters of men. It is pos- 
sible that the sudden inroads of destroying nations — such 
as the Huns, or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars — may 
have inflicted misery as extensive; but there the misery 

30 and the desolation would be sudden, like the flight of vol- 
leying lightning. Those who were spared at first would 
generally be spared to the end; those who perished would 
perish instantly. It is possible that the French retreat 
from Moscow may have made some nearer approach to this 

35 calamity in duration, though still a feeble and miniature 



FLIGHT OF A TAETAR TRIBE 45 

approach, for tli(3 French sufferings did not commence in 
good earnest until about one month from the time of leav- 
ing Moscow; and though it is true that afterwards the vials 
of wrath were emptied upon the devoted army for six or 
seven weeks in succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck 5 
tragedy, which lasted for more than as many months? But 
the main feature of horror, by which the Tartar march 
was distinguished from the French, lies in the accompani- 
ment of women and children. There were both, it is true, 
with the French army, but so few as to bear no visible 10 
proportion to the total numbers concerned. The French, 
in short, were merely an army, — a host of professional 
destroyers, whose regular trade -was bloodshed, and whose 
regular element was danger and suffering. But the Tartars 
were a nation carr3dng along .with them more than two 15 
hundred and fifty thousand women and children, utterly 
unequal, for the most part, to any contest with the calami- 
ties before them. The children of Israel were in the same 
circumstances as to the accompaniment of their families; 
but they were released from the pursuit of their enemies in 20 
a very early stage of their flight; and their subsequent 
residence in the desert was not a march, but a continued 
halt, and under a continued interposition of Heaven for 
their comfortable support. Earthquakes, again, however 
comprehensive in their ravages, are shocks of a moment's 25 
duration. A much nearer approach made to the wide range 
and the long duration of the Kalmuck tragedy jmay have 
been in a pestilence such as that which visited Athens in 
the Peloponnesian War, or London in the reign of Charles 
II. VThere, also, the martyrs were counted by myriads, and 30 
the period of the desolation was counted by months. But, 
after all, the total amount of destruction was on a smaller 
scale; and there was this feature of alleviation to the 
conscious pressure of the calamity, — that the misery was 
withdrawn from public notice into private chambers and 35 



46 DE quincey's 

hospitals. The siege of Jerusalem by Vespasiau and his 
son, taken in its entire circumstances, comes nearest of all 
for breadth and depth of suffering, for duration, for the 
exasperation of the suffering from without by internal 

5 feuds, aud, finally, for that last most appalling expression 
of the furnace heat of the anguish in its power to extin- 
guish the natural affections even of maternal love. But, 
after all, each case had circumstances of romantic misery 
peculiar to itself, — circumstances without precedent, and 

10 (wherever human nature is ennobled by Christianity), it 
may be confidently hoped, never to be repeated. 

The first point to be reached, before any hope of repose 
could be encouraged, was the river Jaik. This was not 
above three hundred miles from the main point of departure 

15 on the Wolgaj (and, if the march thither was to be a forced 
one and a severe one, it was alleged, on the other hand, 
that the suffering would be the more brief and transient: 
one summary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was 
achieved. Forced the march was, and severe beyond ex- 

20 ample, — there the forewarning proved correct, — but the- 
promised rest proved a mere phantom of the wilderness, a 
visionary rainbow, which fled before their hope-sick eyes, 
across these interminable solitudes, for seven months of 
hardship and calamity, without a pause. These sufferings, 

25 by their very nature and the circumstances under which 
they arose, were (like the scenery of the steppes) somewhat 
monotonous in their coloring and external features. What 
variety, however, there was, will be most naturally exhibited 
by tracing historically the successive stages of the general 

30 misery exactly as it unfolded itself under the double agency 
of weakness, still increasing from within, and hostile pres- 
sure from without. Viewed in this manner, under the real 
order of development, it is remarkable that these sufferings 
of the Tartars, though under the moulding hands of acci- 

35 dent, arrange themselves almost with a scenical propriety. 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 47 

They seem combined as with the skill of an artist, the 
intensity of tlie misery advancing regularly with the 
advances of the march, and the stages of the calamity cor- 
responding to the stages of the route ; so that, upon raising 
the curtain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold 5 
one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by regular 
gradations, as if constructed artificially for picturesque 
effect, — ^ a result which might not have been surprising, had 
it been reasonable to anticipate the same rate of speed, and 
even an accelerated rate, as prevailing through the later lo 
stages of the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, 
most reasonable to calculate upon a continual decrement in 
the rate of motion according to the increasing distance from 
the headquarters of the pursuing enemy. This calculation, 
however, was defeated by the extraordinary circumstance 15 
that the Russian armies did not begin to close in very fiercely 
upon the Kalmucks until after they had accomplished a 
distance of full two thousand miles. One thousand miles 
farther on, the assaults became even more tumultuous and 
murderous; and already the great shadows of the Chinese 20 
AVall were dimly descried, when the frenzy and achar7iement 
of the pursuers and the bloody desperation of the miserable 
fugitives had reached its uttermost extremity. Let us 
briefly rehearse the main stages of the misery, and trace 
the ascending steps of the tragedy according to the great 25 
divisions of the route marked out by the central rivers of 
Asia. 

The first stage, we have already said, was from the Wolga 
to the Jaik; the distance about three hundred miles; the 
time allowed seven days. For the first Aveek, therefore, 30 
the rate of marching averaged about forty-three English 
miles a day. The weather was cold but bracing; and at a 
more moderate pace this part of the journey might have 
been accomplished without much distress by a people as 
hardy as the Kalmucks. As it was, the cattle suffered 35 



48 DE quincey's 

greatly from overdriving; milk began to fail even for the 
children; the sheep perished by wholesale; and the chil- 
dren themselves were saved only by the innumerable camels. 
The Cossacks who dwelt upon the banks of the Jaik were 

5 the first among the subjects of Eussia to come into colli- 
sion with tlie Kalmucks. Great was their surprise at the 
suddenness of the irruption, and great, also, their con- 
sternation; for, according to their settled custom, by far 
the greater part of their number was absent during the 

10 winter months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some 
who were liable to surprise at the most exposed points fled 
in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, which was immedi- 
ately invested and summoned by Oubacha. He had, how- 
ever, in his train only a few light pieces of artillery; and 

15 the Russian commandant at Koulagina, being aware of the 
hurried circumstances in which the khan was placed, and 
that he stood upon the very edge, as it were, of a renewed 
flight, felt encouraged by these considerations to a more 
obstinate resistance than might else have been advisable 

20 with an enemy so little disposed to observe the usages of 
civilized warfare. The jjeriod of his anxiety was not long. 
On the fifth day of the siege lie descried from the walls a 
succession of Tartar couriers, mounted upon fleet Bactritin 
camels, crossing the vast plains around the fortress at a 

25 furious pace, and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at 
various points. Great agitation appeared immediately to 
follow. Orders were soon after despatched in all direc- 
tions ; and it became speedily known that upon a distant 
flank of the Kalmuck movement a bloody and exterminating 

30 battle had been fought the day before, in which one entire 
tribe of the khan's dependents, numbering not less than 
nine thousand fighting men, had perished to the last man. 
This was the ouloss, or clan, called Feka-Zechorr, between 
whom and the Cossacks there was a feud of ancient stand- 

35 ing. In selecting, therefore, the points of attack, on occa- 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 49 

sion of the present hasty inroad, the Cossack chiefs were 
naturally eager so to direct their efforts as to combine with 
the service of the empress some gratification to their own 
party hatreds, more especially as the present was likely 
to be their final opportunity for revenge, if the Kalmuck 5 
evasion should prosper. Having, therefore, concentrated 
as large a body of Cossack cavalry as circumstances allowed, 
they attacked the hostile ouloss with a precipitation which 
denied to it all means for communicating with Oubacha; 
for the necessity of commanding an ample range of pas- 10 
turage, to meet the necessities of their vast flocks and herds, 
had separated this ouloss from the khan's headquarters by 
an interval of eighty miles : and thus it was, and not from 
oversight, that it came to be thrown entirely upon its own 
resources. These had proved insufficient. Ketreat, from 15 
the exhausted state of their horses and camels, no less than 
from the prodigious incumbrances of their live stock, was 
absolutely out of the question. Quarter was disdained on 
the one side, and would not have been granted on tlie 
other; and thus it had happened that the setting sun of 20 
that one day (the thirteenth from the first opening of the 
revolt) threw his parting rays upon the final agonies of an 
ancient ouloss, stretched upon a bloody field, who on that 
day's dawning had held and styled themselves an inde- 
pendent nation. 25 

Universal consternation was diffused through the wide 
borders of the khan's encampment by this disastrous intel- 
ligence, not so much on account of the numbers slain, or 
the total extinction of a powerful ally, as because the posi- 
tion of the Cossack force was likely to put to hazard the 30 
future advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard and 
hold them in check until the heavier columns of the Rus- 
sian army should arrive upon their flanks. The siege of 
Koulagina was instantly raised; and that signal, so fatal 
to the happiness of the women and children, once again 35 



50 DE quincey's 

resounded through the tents, — the signal for flight, and 
this time for a flight more rapid than ever. ,4.bout one 
hundred and fifty miles ahead of their present position 
there arose a tract of hilly country, forming a sort of mar- 
5 gin to the vast, sealike expanse of champaign savannas, 
steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which stretched 
away on each side of this margin both eastwards and west- 
wards. Pretty nearly in the centre of this hilly range lay 
a narrow defile, through which passed the nearest and the 

10 most practicable route to the river Torgau (the farther bank 
of which river offered the next great station of security for 
a general halt). It was the more essential to gain this pass 
before the Cossacks, inasmuch as not only would the delay 
in forcing the pass give time to the Russian pursuing 

15 columns for combining their attacks and for bringing up 
their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies in pur- 
suit were thrown out of the question) it was held by those 
best acquainted with the diflicult and obscure geography of 
these pathless steppes that the loss of this one narrow strait 

20 amongst the hills would have the effect of throwing them 
(as their only alternative in a case where so wide a sweep of 
pasturage was required) upon a circuit of at least five hun- 
dred miles extra; besides that, after all, this circuitous 
route would carry them to the Torgau at a point ill fitted for 

25 the passage of their heavy baggage. The defile in the hills, 
therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless they 
moved upon it with the velocity of light cavalry, there was 
little chance but it would be found preoccupied by the Cos- 
sacks. They, it is true, had suffered greatly in the recent 

30 sanguinary action with their enemies; but the excitement 
of victory, and the intense sympathy with their unexam- 
pled triumph, had again swelled their ranks, and would 
probably act with the force of a vortex to draw in their 
simple countrymen from the Caspian. The question, there- 

35 fore, of preoccupation was reduced to a race. The Cossacks 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 51 

were marching upon an oblique line not above fifty miles 
longer than that which led to the same point from the Kal- 
muck headquarters before Koulagina; and therefore, with- 
out the most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, 
there was not a chance for them, burdened and " trashed " 5 
as they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the 
Cossacks in seizing this important pass. 

Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing 
this exposition of the case ; for they easily understood that 
too capital an interest (the summa rerum) was now at stake 10 
to allow of any regard to minor interests, or what would be 
considered such in their present circumstances. The dread- 
ful week already passed — their inauguration in misery — 
was yet fresh in their remembrance. The scars of suffering 
were impressed not only upon their memories, but upon 15 
their very persons and the persons of their children; and 
they knew that, where no speed had much chance of meet- 
ing the cravings of the chieftains, no test would be accepted, 
short of absolute exhaustion, that as much had been accom- 
plished as could be accomplished. Weseloff, the Russian 20 
captive, has recorded the silent wretchedness Avith which 
the women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent 
ropes. On the 5th of January all had been animation and 
the joyousness of indefinite expectation; now, on the con- 
trary, a brief but bitter experience had taught them to take 25 
an amended calculation of what it was that lay before them. 

One whole day, and far into the succeeding night, had 
the renewed flight continued. The sufferings had been 
greater than before; for the cold had been more intense, 
and many perished out of the living creatures through every 30 
class except only the camels, whose powers of endurance 
seemed equally adapted to cold and heat. The second 
morning, however, brought an alleviation to the distress. 
Snow had begun to fall ; and, though not deep at present, 
it was easily foreseen that it soon would be so, and that, as 35 



52 DE quincey's 

a halt would in that case become unavoidable, no plan could 
be better than that of staying where they were, especially 
as the same cause would check the adv^ance of the Cossacks. 
Here, then, was the last interval of comfort which gleamed 

5 upon the unhappy nation during their whole migration. 
For ten days the snow continued to fall with little inter- 
mission. At the end of that time, keen, bright, frosty 
weather succeeded : the drifting had ceased. In three days 
the smooth expanse became hrm enough to support the 

10 treading of the camels, and the flight was recommenced. 
But during the halt much domestic comfort had been 
enjoyed, and, for the last time, universal plenty. The 
cows and oxen had perished in such vast numbers on the 
previous marches, that an order was now issued to turn 

15 what remained to account by slaughtering the whole, and 
salting whatever part should be found to exceed the imme- 
diate consumption. This measure led to a scene of general 
banqueting, and even of festivity, amongst all who were not 
incapacitated for joyous emotions by distress of mind, by 

20 grief for the unhappy experience of the few last days, and 
by anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy thousand 
persons of all ages had already perished, exclusive of 
the many thousand allies who had been cut down by the 
Cossack sabre; and the losses in reversion were likely to 

'25 be many more. For rumors began now to arrive from all 
quarters, by the mounted couriers whom the khan had de- 
spatched to the rear and to each flank as well as in advance, 
that large masses of the imperial troops were converging 
from all parts of Central Asia to the fords of the river 

30 Torgau, as the most convenient point for intercepting the 
flying tribes; and it was by this time well known that a 
powerful division was close in their rear, and was retarded 
only by the numerous artillery which had been judged neces- 
sary to su]>port their operations. New motives were thus 

35 daily arising for quickening the motions of the wretched 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 53 

Kalmucks and for exhausting those who were previously 
but too much exhausted. 

It was not until the second day of Febrjiary that the 
khan's advanced guard came in sight of Ouctiim, the defile 
among the hills of Moulgaldchares, in which they antici- 5 
pated so bloody an opposition from the Cossacks. A pretty 
large body of these light cavalry had, in fact, preoccupied 
the pass by some hours; but the khan, having two great 
advantages, — namely, a strong body of infantry, who had 
been conveyed by sections of five on about two hundred lo 
camels, and some pieces of light artillery which he had not 
yet been forced to abandon, — soon began to make a serious 
impression upon this unsupported detachment, and they 
would probably at any rate have retired; but at the very 
moment when they were making some dispositions in that 15 
view Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon their rear with a body of 
trained riflemen who had distinguished themselves in the 
war with Turkey. Tliese men had contrived to crawl un- 
observed over the cliffs which skirted the ravine, availing 
themselves of the dry beds of the summer torrents, and 20 
other inequalities of the ground, to conceal their movement. 
Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly in the Cossack 
files. The khan, who had been waiting with the elite of 
his heavy cavalry, charged furiously upon them. Total 
overthrow followed to the Cossacks, and a slaughter such 25 
as in some measure avenged the recent bloody extermi- 
nation of their allies, the ancient ouloss of Feka-Zechorr. 
The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to support 
the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and a body of trained 
cameleers (that is, cuirassiers mounted on camels). Hardy 30 
they were, but not strong, nor a match for their antagonists 
in weight; and their extraordinary efforts through the last 
few days to gain their present position had greatly dimin- 
ished their powers for eftecting an escape. Very few, in 
fact, did escape; and the bloody day of Oiichim became as 35 



54 DE quincf.y's 

memorable among the Cossacks as that which, about twenty 
days before^ had signalized the complete annihilation of the 
Feka-ZechoiT , 

The road \/ ' j now open to the river Igritch, and as yet 
5 even far beyond it to the Torgau; but how long this state 
of things would continue was every day more doubtful. 
Certain intelligence was now received that a large Russian 
army, well appointed in every arm, was advancing upon the 
Torgau under the command of General Traubenberg. This 

10 officer was to be joined on his route by ten thousand Bash- 
kirs and pretty nearly the same amount of Kirghizes, — 
both hereditary enemies of the Kalmucks, both exasperated 
to a point of madness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha 
and Momotbacha had in late years won from such of their 

15 compatriots as served under the Sultan. The Czarina's 
yoke these wild nations bore with submissive patience, but 
not the hands by wliich it had been imposed; and accord- 
ingly, catching witli eagerness at the present occasion 
offered to their vengeance, they sent an assurance to the 

20 Czarina of their perfect obedience to her commands, and 
at the same time a message significantly declaring in what 
spirit they meant to execute them, namely, "that they 
would not trouble her Majesty with prisoners." 

Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a race for 

25 the Kalmucks with the regular armies of Russia, and con- 
currently with nations as fierce and semi-humanized as 
themselves, besides that they were stung into threefold 
activity by the furies of mortified pride and military abase- 
ment under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The forces, 

30 and more especially the artillery, of Eussia were far too 
overwhelming to permit the thought of a regular opposi- 
tion in pitched battles, even Avitli a less dilapidated state 
of their resources than they could reasonably expect at the 
period of their arrival on the Torgau. In their speed lay 

35 their only hope, — in strength of foot, as before, and not 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 55 

in strength of arm. Onward, therefore, the Kalmucks 
pressed, marking the lines of their wide-extending march 
over the sad solitudes of the steppes by a never-ending 
chain of corpses. The old and the young, the sick man on 
his couch, the mother with her baby, — all were left behind. 5 
Sights such as these, with the many rueful aggravations 
incident to the helpless condition of infancy, — of disease 
and of female weakness abandoned to the wolves amidst 
a howling wilderness, — continued to track tlieir course 
through a space of full two thousand miles; for so much at 10 
the least it was likely to prove, including the circuits to 
which they were often compelled by rivers or hostile tribes, 
from the point of starting on the Wolga until they could 
reach their destined halting ground on the east bank of the 
Torgau. For the first seven weeks of this march their 15 
sufferings had been embittered by the excessive severity of 
the cold; and every night — ■ so long as wood was to be had 
for fires, either from the lading of the camels, or from the 
desperate sacrifice of their baggage wagons, or (as occasion- 
ally happened) from the forests which skirted the banks of 20 
the many rivers which crossed their path — no spectacle 
was more frequent than that of a circle, composed of men, 
women, and children, gathered by hundreds round a central 
fire, all dead and stiff at the return of morning light. 
Myriads were left beliind from pure exhaustion, of whom 25 
none had a chance, under the combined evils which beset 
them, of surviving through the next twenty-four hours. 
Frost, however, and snow at length ceased to persecute; 
the vast extent of the march at length brought them into 
more genial latitudes; and the unusual duration of the 30 
march was gradually bringing them into the more genial 
seasons of the year. Two thousand miles had at least been 
traversed; February, March, April, were gone; the balmy 
month of May had opened; vernal sights and sounds came 
from every side to comfort the heart-weary travellers; and 35 



56 DE quincey's 

at last, in the latter end of May, they crossed the Torgau, and 
took up a position where they hoped to hnd liberty to repose 
themselves for many weeks in comfort as well as in security, 
and to draw such supplies from the fertile neighborhood as 

5 might restore their shattered forces to a condition for exe- 
cuting, with less of wreck and ruin, the large remainder of 
the journey. 

Yes, it was true that two thousand miles of wandering 
had been completed, but in a period of nearly five months, 

10 and with the terrific sacrifice of at least two hundred and 
fifty thousand souls, to say nothing of herds and flocks past 
all reckoning. These had all perished, — ox, cow, horse, 
mule, ass, sheep, or goat: not one survived, — only the 
camels. These arid and adust creatures, looking like the 

15 mummies of some antediluvian animals, without the affec- 
tions or sensibilities of flesh and blood, — these only still 
erected their speaking eyes to the eastern heavens, and had 
to all appearance come out from this long tempest of trial 
unscathed and unharmed. The khan, knowing how much 

20 he was individually answerable for the misery which had 
been sustained, must have wept tears even more bitter than 
those of Xerxes when he threw his eyes over the myriads 
whom he had assembled; for the tears of Xerxes were 
unmiugled with compunction. Whatever amends were in 

25 his power he resolved to make by sacrifices to the gen- 
eral good of all personal regards; and accordingly, even 
at this point of their advance, he once more deliberately 
brought under review the whole question of the revolt. 
The question was formally debated before the council, 

30 whether, even at this point, they should untread their 
steps, and, throwing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, 
return to their old allegiance. In that case, Oubacha pro- 
fessed himself willing to become the scapegoat for the 
general transgression. Tliis, he argued, was no fantastic 

35 scheme, but even easy of accomplishment; for the unlimited 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 57 

and sacred power of the khan, so well known to the empress, 
made it absolutely iniquitoas to attribute any separate re- 
sponsibility to the people. Upon the khan rested the guilt; 
upon the khan would descend the imperial vengeance. This 
proposal was applauded for its generosity, but was ener- 5 
getically opposed by Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the 
whole journey of two thousand miles? Was their misery 
to perish without fruit? True it was that they had yet 
reached only the halfway house; but in that respect the 
motives were evenly balanced for retreat or for advance. lO 
Either way they would have pretty nearly the same dis- 
tance to traverse, but with this difference, — that, forwards, 
their route lay through lands comparatively fertile ; back- 
wards through a blasted wilderness, rich only in memorials 
of their sorrow, and hideous to Kalmuck eyes by the 15 
trophies of their calamity. Besides, though the empress 
might accept an excuse for the past, would she the less for- 
bear to suspect for the future? The Czarina's jpardon they 
might obtain ; but could they ever hope to recover her C07i- 
Jiclence? Doubtless there would now be a standing pre- 20 
sumption against them, an immortal ground of jealousy; 
and a jealous government would be but another name for 
a harsh one. Finally, whatever motives there ever had 
been for the revolt surely remained unimpaired by anything 
that had occurred. In reality the revolt was, after all, no 25 
revolt, but (strictly speaking) a return to their old alle- 
giance; since not above one hundred and fifty years ago 
(viz., in the year 1616), their ancestors had revolted from 
the Emperor of China. They had now tried both govern- 
ments ; and for them China was the land of promise, and 30 
Russia the house of bondage. 

Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, the 
yearning of the people was strongly in behalf of the khan's 
proposal ; the pardon of their prince, they persuaded them- 
selves, would be readily conceded b}^ the empress; and 35 



58 DE quincey's 

there is little doubt that they would at this time have 
thrown themselves gladly upon the imperial mercy, — when 
suddenly all was defeated by the arrival of two envoys from 
Traubenberg. This general had reached the fortress of 

5 Orsk, after a very painful march, on the 12th of April ; 
thence he set forwards towards Oriembourg, which he 
reached upon the 1st of June, having been joined on his 
route, at various times through the month of May, by the 
Kirghizes and a corps of ten thousand Bashkirs. From 

10 Oriembourg he sent forward his official offers to the khan, 
which were harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific 
stipulations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting uncon- 
ditional submission as the preliminary price of any cessa- 
tion from military operations. The personal character of 

15 Traubenberg, which was anything but energetic, and the 
condition of his army, disorganized in a great measure by 
the length and severity of the march, made it probable, 
that, with a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory 
tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily for all 

20 parties, sinister events occurred in the meantime, such as 
effectually put an end to every hope of the kind. 

The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg had re- 
ported to this officer that a distance of only ten days' march 
lay between his own headquarters and tliose of the khan. 

25 Upon this fact transpiring, the Kirghizes, by their prince 
Nourali, and the Bashkirs, entreated the Eussian general 
to advance Avithout delay. Once having placed his cannon 
in position, so as to command the Kalmuck camp, the fate 
of the rebel khan and his people would be in his own hands, 

30 and they would themselves form his advanced guard. Trau- 
benberg, however, — ivliy has not been certainly explained, 
— refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the condi- 
tion of his army and their absolute need of refreshment. 
Long and fierce was the altercation; but at length, seeing 

35 no chance of prevailing, and dreading above all other events 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 59 

the escape of their detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs 
went off in a body by forced marches. In six days they 
reached the Torgau, crossed by swimming their horses, and 
fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dispersed for many a 
league in search of food or provender for their camels. The 5 
first day's action was one vast succession of independent 
skirmishes diffused over a field of thirty to forty miles in 
extent; one party often breaking up into three or four, 
and again (according to the accidents of ground), three or 
four blending into one ; flight and pursuit, rescue and total lo 
overthrow, going on simultaneously, under all varieties of 
form, in all quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found 
themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the Kalmucks, 
to split up into innumerable sections ; and thus, for some 
hours, it had been impossible for the most practised eye to 15 
collect the general tendency of the day's fortune. Both the 
khan and Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made prisoners, 
and more than once in imminent danger of being cut down ; 
but at length Zebek succeeded in rallying a strong column 
of infantry, which, with the support of the camel corps on 20 
each flank, compelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, how- 
ever, of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through the 
next two days and nights, followed or accompanied by the 
Kirghizes. These being viewed as the advanced parties of 
Traubenberg's army, the Kalmuck chieftains saw no hope 25 
of safety but in flight ; and in this way it happened that 
a retreat which had so recently been brought to a pause, 
was resumed at the very moment when the unhappy fugi- 
tives were anticipating a deep repose, without further moles- 
tation, the whole summer through. 30 

It seemed as though every variety of wretchedness were 
predestined to the Kalmucks, and as if their sufferings were 
incomplete unless they were rounded and matured by all 
that the most dreadful agencies of summer's heat could 
superadd to those of frost and winter. To this sequel of 35 



60 DE quincey's 

their story we shall immediately revert, after first noticing a 
little romantic episode which occurred at this point between 
Oubacha and his unprincipled cousin Zebek-Dorchi. 

There was, at the time of the Kalmuck flight from the 
5 Wolga, a Russian gentleman of some rank at the court of 
the khan, whom for political reasons it was thought neces- 
sary to carry along with them as a captive. For some 
weeks his confinement had been very strict, and in one or 
two instances cruel. But as the increasing distance was 

locoutinually diminishing the chances of escape, and perhaps, 
also, as the misery of the guards gradually withdrew their 
attention from all minor interests to their own personal 
sufferings, the vigilance of the custody grew more and more 
relaxed, until at length, upon a petition to the khan, Mr. 

15 Weseloff was formally restored to liberty ; and it was 
understood that he might use his liberty in whatever way 
he chose, even for returning to Russia, if that should be his 
wish. Accordingly, he was making active preparations for 
his journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to Zebek- 

20 Dorchi that not improbably, in some of the battles which 
were then anticipated with Traubenberg, it might happen 
to them to lose some prisoner of rank, in which case the 
Russian Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for ne- 
gotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his own severe 

25 affliction, the Russian was detained until the further pleas- 
ure of the khan. The khan's name, indeed, was used 
through the whole affair, but, as it seemed, with so little 
concurrence on his part, that when Weseloff in a private 
audience humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done him, 

;iO and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feelings by setting 
him at liberty, and, as it were, tempting him into dreams 
of home and restored happiness, only for the purpose of 
l)lighting them, the good-natured prince disclaimed all par- 
ticipation in the affair, and went so far in proving his sin- 

o5 cerity as even to give him permission to effect his escape ; 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 61 

and, as a ready means of coinmeiiciiig it without raising 
suspicion, the khan mentioned to Mr. Weseloff that he had 
just then received a message from the hetman of the Bash- 
kirs, soliciting a private interview on the banks of the 
Torgau at a spot pointed out. That interview was arranged n 
for the coming night; and Mr. Weseloff might go in the 
khan's suite, which on either side was not to exceed three 
persons. Weseloff was a prudent man, acquainted with the 
world, and he read treachery in the very outline of this 
scheme as stated by the khan, — treachery against the lo 
khan's person. He mused a little, and then communi- 
cated so much of his suspicions to the khan as might put 
him on his guard ; but, upon further consideration, he begged 
leave to decline the honor of accompanying the khan. The 
fact was, that three Kalmucks, who had strong motives for 15 
returning to their countrymen on the west bank of the 
Wolga, guessing the intentions of Weseloff, had offered to 
join him in his escape. These men the khan would prob- 
ably find himself obliged to countenance in their project; 
so that it became a point of honor with W^eseloff to conceal 20 
their intentions, and therefore to accomplish the evasion 
from the camp (of which the first step only would be haz- 
ardous) without risking the notice of the khan. 

The district in which they were now encamped abounded 
through many hundred miles with wild horses of a docile 25 
and beautiful breed. Each of the four fugitives had caught 
from seven to ten of these spirited creatures in the course 
of the last few days. This raised no suspicion; for the 
rest of the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of 
provision against the coming toils of their remaining route 30 
to China. These horses were secured by halters, and hidden 
about dusk in the thickets which lined the margin of the 
river. To these thickets, about ten at night, the four fugi- 
tives repaired. They took a circuitous path which drew 
them as little as possible within danger of challenge from 35 



62 DE quincey's 

any of the outposts or of the patrols which had been es- 
tablished on the quarters where the Bashkirs lay, and in 
three quarters of an hour they reached the rendezvous. 
The moon had now risen, the horses were unfastened, and 
5 they were in the act of mounting, when the deep silence 
of the woods was disturbed by a violent uproar and the 
clashing of arms. Weseloff fancied that he heard the voice 
of the khan shouting for assistance. He remembered the 
communication made by that prince in the morning, and, 

10 requesting his companions to support him, he rode off in 
the direction of the sound. A very short distance brought 
him to an open glade in the wood, where he beheld four 
men contending with a party of at least nine or ten. Two 
of the four were dismounted at the very instant of Weseloff' s 

15 arrival. One of these he recognized almost certainly as the 
khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at great disad- 
vantage, with two of the adverse horsemen. Seeing that 
no time was to be lost, Weseloff fired, and brought down 
one of the two. His companions discharged their carbines 

20 at the same moment, and then all rushed simultaneously into 
the little open area. The thundering sound of about thirty 
horses, all rushing at once into a narrow space, gave the 
impression that a whole troop of cavalry was coming down 
upon the assailants, who accordingly wheeled about and fled 

25 with one impulse. Weseloff advanced to the dismounted 
cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the khan. The 
man whom Weseloff had shot was lying dead; and both 
were shocked, though Weseloff at least was not surprised, 
on stooping down, and scrutinizing his features, to recog- 

ounize a well-known confidential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. 
Nothing was said by either party. The khan rode off, 
escorted by Weseloff and his companions ; and for some 
time a dead silence prevailed. The situation of Weseloff 
was delicate and critical. To leave the khan at this point 

;35was probably to cancel their recent services; for he might 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRrP.B. 63 

be again crossed on his path, and again attacked by the 
very party from whom he had just been delivered. Yet, 
on the other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger 
the chances of accomplishing the escape. The khan, also, 
was apparently revolving all this in his mind ; for at length 5 
he broke silence, and said, " I comprehend your situation, 
and under other circumstances I might feel it my duty to 
detain your companions ; but it would ill become me to do 
so after the important service you have just rendered me. 
Let us turn a little to the left. There, where you see the 10 
watchlire, is an outpost. Attend me so far. I am then 
safe. You may turn, and pursue your enterprise ; for the 
circumstances under which you will appear, as my escort, 
are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for the pres- 
ent. I regret having no better means at my disposal for 15 
testifying my gratitude. But tell me, before we part, — 
Was it accident only which led you to my rescue ? Or 
had you acquired any knowledge of the plot by which I 
was decoyed into this snare ? " Weseloff answered very 
candidly that mere accident had brought him to the spot 20 
at which he heard the uproar; but that having heard it, 
and connecting it with the khan's communication of the 
morning, he had then designedly gone after the sound in a 
way which he certainly should not have done at so critical 
a moment, unless in the expectation of finding the khan 25 
assaulted by assassins. A few minutes after, they reached 
the outpost at which it became safe to lea-ve the Tartar 
chieftain ; and immediately the four fugitives commenced 
a flight which is perhaps without a parallel in the annals 
of travelling. Each of them led six or seven horses besides 30 
the one he rode; and by shifting from one to the other (like 
the ancient desultors of the E-oman circus), so as never to 
burden the same horse for more than half an hour at a 
time, they continued to advance at the rate of two hundred 
miles in the twenty -four hours for three days consecutively. 35 



64 DE qltincey's 

After that time, conceiving themselves beyond pursuit, they 
proceeded less rapidly, though still with a velocity which 
staggered the belief of Weseloff's friends in after years. 
He was, however, a man of high principle, and always 

5 adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. One 
of the circumstances there stated is, that they continued 
to pursue the route by which the Kalmucks had fled, never 
for an instant finding any difficulty in tracing it by the 
skeletons and other memorials of their calamities. In 

10 particular, he mentions vast heaps of money as part of 
the valuable property which it had been necessary to sacri- 
fice. These heaps were found lying still untouched in the 
deserts. From these, Weseloff and his companions took as 
much as they could conveniently carry; and this it was, 

15 with the price of their beautiful horses (which they after- 
wards sold at one of the Russian military settlements for 
about fifteen pounds apiece), which eventually enabled them 
to pursue their journey in Eussia. This journey, as regarded 
Weseloff in particular, was closed by a tragical catastroj)lie. 

20 He was at that time young, and the only child of a doting 
mother. Her affliction under the violent abduction of her 
son had been excessive, and probal)ly had undermined her 
constitution. Still she had supported it. Weseloff, giving 
way to the natural impulses of his filial affection, had im- 

25 prudently posted through Russia to his mother's liouse 
without warning of his approach. He rushed precipitately 
into her presence ; and she, who had stood the shocks of 
sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy too sudden 
and too acute. She died upon the spot. 

30 I now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck flight. 
These it would be useless to pursue circumstantially through 
the whole two thousand miles of suffering which remained: 
for the character of that suffering was even more monoto- 
nous than on the fornun- half of the flight, and also more 

35 severe. Its main elements were excessive heat, with the 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 65 

accompaniiiients of faiuine and thirst, but aggravated at 
every step by the murderous attacks of their cruel enemies, 
the Bashkirs and the Kirghizes. 

These people, "more fell than anguish, hunger, or the 
sea," stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like a swarm of en- 5 
raged hornets. And very often, whilst they were attacking 
them in the rear, their advanced parties and flanks were 
attacked with almost equal fury by the people of the country 
which they were traversing ; and with good reason, since the 
law of self-preservation had now obliged the fugitive Tartars lo 
to plunder provisions and to forage wherever they passed. 
In this respect their condition was a constant oscillation of 
wretchedness ; for sometimes, pressed by grinding famine, 
they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles in order to 
strike into a land rich in the comforts of life. But in such 15 
a land they Avere sure to find a crowded population, of which 
every arm was raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the 
advantages of local knowledge, and with constant preoccu- 
pation of all the defensible positions, mountain passes, or 
bridges. Sometimes, again, wearied out with this mode of 20 
suffering, they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles in 
order to strike into a land with few or no inhabitants ; but 
in such a land they were sure to meet absolute starvation. 
Then, again, whether with or without this plague of starva- 
tion, whether with or without this plague of hostility in 25 
front, whatever might be the "fierce varieties" of their 
niiser}^ in this respect, no rest ever came to their unhappy 
rear; i^ost equitem sedet atra cura; it was a torment like the 
undying worm of conscience, and upon the whole it pre- 
sented a spectacle altogether unprecedented in the history 30 
of mankind. Private and personal malignity is not unfre- 
quently immortal ; but rare indeed is it to find the same 
pertinacity of malice in a nation. And what imbittered the 
interest was, that the malice was reciprocal. Thus far the 
parties met upon equal terms ; but that equality only sharp- 35 



66 ~ DE quincey's 

ened the sense of their dire inequality as to other circum- 
stances. The Bashkirs were ready to light "from morn to 
dewy eve." The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were always 
obliged to run. Was it from their enemies as creatures 
5 whom they feared ? No, but towards their friends, — 
towards that final haven of China, — as what was hourly 
implored by their wives and the tears of their children. 
But, though they lied unwillingly, too often they fled in 
vain, being unwillingly recalled. There lay the torment. 

10 Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them ; every day the 
same unprofitable battle was renewed. As a matter of 
course, the Kalmucks recalled part of their advanced guard 
to fight them. Every day the battle raged for hours, and 
uniformly with the same result ; for, no sooner did the Bash- 

15 kirs find themselves too heavily pressed, and that the Kal- 
muck march had been retarded by some hours, than they 
retired into the boundless deserts, where all pursuit was 
hopeless. But if the Kalmucks resolved to press forward, 
regardless of their enemies, in that case their attacks became 

20 so fierce and overwhelming that the general safety seemed 
likely to be brought into question ; nor could any effectual 
remedy be applied to the case, even for each separate day, 
except by a most embarrassing halt and by countermarches 
that to men in their circumstances were almost worse than 

25 death. It will not be surprising that the irritation of such 
a systematic persecution, superadded to a previous and 
hereditary hatred, and accompanied by the stinging con- 
sciousness of utter impotence as regarded all effectual ven- 
geance, should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck animos- 

oOity into th.e wildest expression of downright madness and 
frenzy. Indeed, long before the frontiers of China were 
approached, the hostilit}^ of both sides had assumed the ap- 
pearance much more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than 
amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of reason 

35 or the claims of a common nature. The spectacle became 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 67 

too atrocious : it was that of a host of lunatics pursued 
by a host of fiends. 

On a fine morning in early autumn of the year 1771, Kien 
Long, the Emperor of China, was pursuing his amusements 
in a wild frontier district lying on the outside of the Great r. 
Wall. For many hundred square leagues the country was 
desolate of inhabitants, but rich in woods of ancient growth, 
and overrun with game of every description. In a central 
spot of this solitary region the emperor had built a gorgeous 
hunting lodge, to which he resorted annually for recreation, lo 
and relief from the cares of government. Led onwards in 
pursuit of game, he had rambled to a distance of two hundred 
miles or more from this lodge, followed at a little distance 
by a sufficient military escort, and every night pitching his 
tent in a different situation, until at length he had arrived 15 
on the very margin of the vast central deserts of Asia. Here 
he was standing, by accident, at an opening of his pavilion, 
enjoying the morning sunshine, when suddenly to the west- 
ward there arose a vast, cloudy vapor, which by degrees 
expanded, mounted, and seemed to be slowly diffusing itself 20 
over the whole face of the heavens. By and by this vast 
sheet of mist 'began to thicken towards the horizon, and to 
roll forward in billowy volumes. The emperor's suite as- 
sembled from all quarters ; the silver trumpets were sounded 
in the rear ; and from all the glades and forest avenues began -5 
to trot forward towards the pavilion the yagers — half cav- 
alry, half huntsmen — who composed the imperial escort. 
Conjecture was on the stretch to divine the cause of this 
phenomenon ; and the interest continually increased in pro- 
portion as simple curiosity gradually deepened into the so 
anxiety of uncertain danger. At first it had been imagined 
that some vast troops of deer or other wild animals of the 
chase had been disturbed in their forest haunts by the em- 
j)eror's movements, or possibly by wild lieasts ]3i'owling for 



68 DE quincey's 

prey, and niiglit be fetching a compass by way of re-entering 
the forest grounds at some remoter points secure from 
molestation. But this conjecture was dissipated by the 
sloX\^ increase of the cloud and the steadiness of its motion. 

5 In the course of two hours the vast phenomenon had ad- 
vanced to a point which was judged to be within five miles 
of the spectators, though all calculations of distance were 
difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the endless 
expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through the next hour, 

10 during which the gentle morning breeze had a little fresh- 
ened, the dusty vapor had developed itself far and wide into 
the appearance of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty 
volumes from the sky to the earth ; and at particular points, 
where the eddies of the breeze acted upon the pendulous 

15 skirts of these aerial curtains, rents were perceived, some- 
times taking the form of regular arches, portals, and windows, 
through which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 
"indorsed" with human beings, and at intervals the mov- 
ing of men and horses in tumultuous array, and then tlirough 

20 other openings, or vistas, at far-distant points, the flashing 
of polished arms. But sometimes, as the Avind slackened 
or died away, all those openings, of whatever form, in the 
cloudy pall, would slowly close, and for a time the whole 
pageant was shut up from view ; although the growing din, 

25 the clamors, the shrieks and groans ascending from infuriated 
myriads, reported, in a language not to be misunderstood, 
what was going on behind the cloudy screen. 

It was, in fact, the Kalmuck host, now in the last extremi- 
ties of their exhaustion, and very fast approaching to that 

30 final stage of privation and intense misery beyond which 
few or none could have lived, but also, happily for them- 
selves, fast approaching (in a literal sense) that final stage 
of their long pilgrimage at which they would meet hospi- 
tality on a scale of royal magnificence, and full protection 

35 from their enomios. TIh^sc (Muunies, however, as yet, still 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 69 

were hanging on their rear as fiercely as ever, though this 
day was destined to be the last of their hideous persecution. 
The khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with all the 
requisite statements and petitions, addressed to the Emperor 
of China. These had been duly received, and preparations n 
made in consecpience to welcome the Kalmucks with the 
most paternal l)enevolence. l>ut as these couriers had been 
despatched from the Torgau at the moment of arrival thither, 
and before the advance of Traubenberg had made it necessary 
for the khan to order a hasty renewal of the flight, the 10 
emperor had not looked for their arrival on their frontier 
until full three months after the present time. Tlie khan 
had, indeed, expressly notified his intention to pass the 
summer heats on the banks of the Torgau, and to recom- 
mence his retreat about the beginning of September. The 15 
subsequent change of plan, being unknown to Kien Long, 
left him for some time in doubt as to the true interpretation 
to be put upon this mighty apparition in the desert ; but at 
length the savage clamors of hostile fury and the clangor of 
weapons unveiled to the emperor the true nature of those 20 
unexpected calamities which had so prematurely precipitated 
the Kalmuck measure. 

Apprehending the real state of affairs, the emperor in- 
stantly perceived that the first act of his fatherly care for 
these erring children (as he esteemed them), now returning 25 
to their ancient obedience, must be to deliver them from 
their pursuers. And this was less difficult than might have 
been supposed. Xot many miles in the rear was a body of 
well-appointed cavalry, with a strong detachment of artil- 
lery, who always attended the emperor's motions. These 30 
were hastily summoned. Meantime it occurred to the train 
of courtiers that some danger might arise to the emperor's 
person from the proximity of a lawless enemy ; and accord- 
ingly he was induced to retire a little to the rear. It soon 
ai:>peared, however, to those who watched the vapory shroud 35 



70 

in the desert, that its motion was not such as would argue 
the direction of the march to be exactly upon the pavilion, 
but rather in a diagonal line, making an angle of full forty- 
five degrees with that line in which the imperial cortege 

5 had been standing, and therefore with a distance continually 
increasing. Those who knew the country judged that the 
Kalmucks were making for a large fresh-water lake about 
seven or eight miles distant. They were right; and to that 
point the imperial cavalry was ordered up ; and it was pre- 

10 cisely in that spot, and about three hours after, and at noon- 
day, on the 8th of September, that the great exodus of the 
Kalmuck Tartars was brought to a final close, and with a 
scene of such memorable and hellish fury as formed an ap- 
propriate winding up to an expedition in all its parts and 

15 details so awfully disastrous. The emperor was not person- 
ally present, or at least he saw whatever he did see from 
too great a distance to discriminate its individual features ; 
but he records in his written memorial the report made to 
him of this scene by some of his own officers. 

20 The Lake of Tengis, near the frightful Desert of Kobi, 
lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate height, ranging 
generally from two or three thousand feet high. About 
eleven o'clock in the forenoon the Chinese cavalry reached 
the summit of a road which led through a cradle-like dip in 

25 the mountains right down upon the margin of the lake. 
From this pass, elevated about two thousand feet above the 
level of the water, they continued to descend, by a very 
winding and difficult road, for an hour and a half ; and dur- 
ing the whole of this descent they were compelled to be 

30 inactive spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The 
Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six hundred 
thousand souls to two hundred thousand, and after enduring 
for two months and a half the miseries we have previously 
described, — outrageous heat, famine, and the destroying 

35 scimitar of the Kirgiiizes and the Bashkirs, — had for the 



FLIGHT OF A TAUTAll TRIBE. 71 

last ten clays been traversing a hideous desert, where no 
vestiges were seen of vegetation, and no drop of water could 
be found. Camels and men were already so overladen that 
it Avas a mere impossibility that they should carry a toler- 
able sufficiency for the passage of this frightful wilderness. 5 
On the eighth day the wretched daily allowance, which had 
been continually diminisliing, failed entirely ; and thus, for 
two days of insupportable fatigue, the horrors of thirst had 
been carried to the hercest extremity. Upon this last morn- 
ing, [it the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which lO 
announced to those who acted as guides the neighborhood 
of the Lake of Tengis, all the j^eople rushed along with mad- 
dening eagerness to the anticipated solace. The day grew 
hotter and hotter, the people more and more exhausted; 
and gradually, in the general rush forwards to the lake, all 15 
discipline and command were lost, all attempts to preserve 
a rear-guard were neglected. The wild Bashkirs rode in 
amongst the encumbered people, and slaughtered them by 
wholesale and almost without resistance. Screams and 
tumultuous shouts proclaimed the progress of the massacre; 20 
but none heeded, none halted : all alike, pauper or noble, 
continued to rush on with maniacal haste to the waters, — 
all with faces blackened by the heat preying upon the liver, 
and with tongue drooping from the mouth. The cruel Bash- 
kir was affected by the same misery, and manifested the 25 
same symptoms of his misery, as the wretched Kalmuck. 
The murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic misery 
as his murdered victim. Many, indeed (an ordinary effect 
of thirst), in both nations, had become lunatic ; and in this 
state, whilst mere multitude and condensation of bodies so 
alone opposed any check to the destroying scimitar and 
the trampling hoof, the lake was reached ; and into that the 
whole vast body of enemies rushed, and together continued 
to rush, forgetful of all things at that moment but of one 
almighty instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one 35 



72 DE quincey's 

inacldening appetite lasted for a single minute ; but in tlie 
next arose the final scene of parting vengeance. Far and 
wide the waters of the solitary lake were instantly dyed 
red with blood and gore. Here rode a party of savage 
5 Bashkirs, hewing off heads as fast as the swaths fall before 
the mower's scythe ; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a 
death grapple with their detested foes, both up to the middle 
in water, and oftentimes both sinking together below the 
surface, from weakness or from struggles, and perishing in 

10 each other's arms. Did the Bashkirs at any point collect 
into a cluster for the sake of giving impetus to the assault, 
thither were the camels driven in fiercely by those who 
rode them, generally women or boys ; and even these quiet 
creatures were forced into a share in this carnival of murder 

15 by trampling down as many as they could strike prostrate 
with the lash of their fore-legs. Every moment the water 
grew more polluted ; and yet every moment fresh myriads 
came up to the lake, and rushed in, not able to resist their 
frantic thirst, and swallowing large draughts of water 

20 visibly contaminated with the blood of their slaughtered 
compatriots. Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to 
allow of men raising their heads above the water, there, 
for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of ghastly fear, 
of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of convulsion, of mortal 

25 conflict, — death, and the fear of death ; revenge, and the 
lunacy of revenge ; hatred, and the frenzy of hatred ; until 
the neutral spectators, of whom there were not a few, now 
descending the eastern side of the lake, at length averted 
their eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed incapable 

30 of further addition, was, however, increased by an unex- 
X3ected incident. The Bashkirs, beginning to perceive here 
and there the approach of the Chinese cavalry, felt it pru- 
dent, wheresoever they were sufficiently at leisure from the 
passions of the murderous scene, to gather into bodies. This 

35 was noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort buiU 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 73 

Upon an eminence above the lake ; and immediately he 
threw in a broadside, which spread havoc amongst the 
Bashkir tribe. As often as the Bashkirs collected into 
" globes " and " tiwms " as their only means of meeting the 
long line of descending Chinese cavalry, so often did the 5 
Chinese governor of the fort pour in his exterminating 
broadside ; until at length the lake, at the lower end, be- 
came one vast seething caldron of human bloodshed and 
carnage. The Chinese cavalry had reached the foot of the 
hills ; the Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had 10 
formed ; skirmishes had been fought ; and with a quick 
sense that the contest was henceforward rapidly becoming 
hopeless, the Bashkirs and Kirghizes began to retire. The 
pursuit was not as vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would 
have desired; but at the same time the very gloomiest 15 
hatred could not but hud in their own dreadful experience 
of the Asiatic deserts, and in the certainty that these 
wretched Bashkirs had to repeat that same experience a 
second time, for thousands of miles, as the price exacted 
by a retributory Providence for their vindictive cruelty, — 20 
not the very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least reflect- 
ing, but found in all this a retaliatory chastisement more 
complete and absolute than any which their swords and 
lances coidd have obtained, or human vengeance could 
have devised. 25 

Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings in the 
desert; for any subsequent marches which awaited them 
were neither long nor painful. Every possible alleviation 
and refreshment for their exhausted bodies had been already 
provicled by Kien Long with the most princely munificence ; so 
and lands of great fertility were immediately assigned to 
them in ample extent along the river Ily, not very far from 
the point at which they had first emerged from the wilder- 
ness of Kobi. But the beneficent attention of the Chinese 



74 DE quincey's 

emperor may be best stated in liis own words, as translated 
into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries : '' La nation 
des Torgotes (savoir les Kalmuqiies) arriva a Ily, toute dela- 
bree, n'ayant ni de quoi vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je I'avais 
5prevu; et j'avais ordonne de faire en tout genre les provi- 
sions necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement; 
c'est ce qui a ete execute. On a fait la division des terres ; 
et on a assigne a cliaque f amille una portion suffisante pour • 
pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit en la cultivant, soit en y 

10 nourissant des bestiaux. On a donne a chaque particulier 
des etoffes pour I'habiller, des grains pour se nourrir pen- 
dant I'espace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le menage et 
d'autres choses necessaires: et outre cela plusieurs onces 
d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce qu'on aurait pu oublier. On 

15 a designe des lieux particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on 
leur a donne des boeufs, moutons, etc., pour qu'ils pussent 
dans la suite travailler par eux-memes a leur entretien et 
a leur bienetre." 

These are the words of the emperor himself, speaking in 

20 his own person of his own paternal cares; but another 
Chinese, treating the same subject, records the munificence 
of this prince in terms which proclaim still more forcibly 
the disinterested generosity which xjrompted, and the deli- 
cate considerateness which conducted, this extensive bounty. 

25 He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he goes on thus : 
"Lorsqu'ils arriverent sur nos frontieres (au nombre de 
plusieurs centaines de mille, quoique la fatigue extreme, la 
faim, la soif, et toutes les autres incommodites inseparables 
d'une tres-longue et tres x)enible route en eussent fait perir 

sopresque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere misere; ils 

, manquaient de tout. II [I'empereur, Kien Long] leur fit" 
preparer des logemens conf ormes a leur maniere de vivre ; 
il leur fit distribuer des aliments et des habits ; il leur fit 
donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, pour les 

35mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et de cultiver la 



FLIGHT OF A TART A 11 TllIBE. 75 

terre, et tout cela a ses 2)ropres frais, qui se sont niontes a des 
sommes imineiises, sans compter Targent qu'il a cloniie a 
cliaque clief-cle-famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistaiice de sa 
femme et de ses enfaiis." 

Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the Kalmucks o 
were replaced in territorial possessions, and in comfort equal 
perhaps, or even superior, to that which they had enjoyed in 
Russia, and with superior political advantages. But, if equal 
or superior, their condition was no longer the same : if not 
in degree, their social prosperity had altered in quality ; for, lo 
instead of being a purely pastoral and vagrant people, they 
were now in circumstances which obliged them to become 
essentially dependent upon agriculture, and thus far raised 
in social rank, that, by the natural course of their habits 
and the necessities of life, they were effectually reclaimed 15 
from roving and from the savage customs connected with so 
unsettled a life. They gained also in political privileges, 
chiefly through the immunity from military service which 
their new relations enabled them to obtain. These were 
circumstances of advantage and gain. But one great disad-20 
vantage there was, amply to overbalance all other possi- 
ble gain, — the chances were lost, or were removed to an 
incalculable distance, for their conversion to Christianity, 
without which in these times there is no absolute advance 
possible on the path of true civilization. 25 

One word remains to be said upon the personal interests 
concerned in this great drama. The catastrophe in this 
respect was remarkable and complete. Oubacha, with all 
his goodness, and incapacity of suspecting, had, since the 
mysterious affair on the banks of the Torgau, felt his mind 30 
alienated from his cousin. He revolted from the man that 
would have murdered him ; and he had displayed his cau- 
tion so visibly as to provoke a reaction in the bearing of 
Zebek-Dorchi, and a displeasure which all his dissimulation 
could not hide. This had produced a feud, which, by keep- 35 



76 DE quincey's 

iiig them aloof, had prol^ably saved the life of Oubacha; for 
the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than his open 
enmity. After the settlement on the Ily, this feud con- 
tinued to advance, until it came under the notice of the em- 

5 peror on occasion of a visit which all the Tartar chieftains 
made to his Majesty at his hunting lodge in 1772. The" 
emperor informed himself accurately of all the particulars 
connected with the transaction, of all the rights and claims 
put forward, and of the way in which they would severally 

10 affect the interests of the Kalmuck people. The conse- 
quence was, that he adopted the cause of Oubacha, and 
repressed the pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his part, 
so deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious proj- 
ects, that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he had the pre- 

15 sumption even to weave nets of treason against the emperor 
himself. Plots were laid, were detected, were baffled: coun- 
terplots were constructed upon the same basis and with the 
benefit of the opportunities thus offered. 

Finally Zebek-Dorchi was invi^ied to the imperial lodge, 

20 together with all his accomplices ; and, under the skilful 
management of the Chinese nobles in the emperor's estab- 
lishment, the murderous artifices of these Tartar chieftains 
were made to recoil upon themselves ; and the whole of 
them perished by assassination at a great imperial banquet; 

25 for the Chinese morality is exactly of that kind which ap- 
proves in everything the lex talionis : — 

" Lex nee justior ulla est [as they think] 
Quam necis artifices arte perire sua." 

So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and originator of the 

30 great Tartar exodus. Oubacha, meantime, and his people 

were gradually recovering from the effects of their misery, 

and repairing their losses. Peace and prosperity, under the 

gentle rule of a fatherly lord paramount, redawned upon 



FLIGHT OF A TARTAR TRIBE. 77 

the tribes; their househokl lares, after so harsh a translation 
to distant climates, found again a happy reinstatement in 
what had, in fact, been their primitive abodes ; they found 
themselves settled in quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the 
luxuries of life, and endowed with the perfect loveliness of 5 
Arcadian beauty. But from the hills of this favored land, 
and even from the level grounds, as they approach its west- 
ern border, they still look out upon that fearful wilderness 
which once beheld a nation in agony, — the utter extirpa- 
tion of nearly half a million from amongst its numbers, and 10 
for the remainder a storm of misery so fierce that in the 
end (as happened also at Athens, during the Peloponnesian 
War, from a different form of misery) very many lost their 
memory; all records of their past life were wiped out as 
with a sponge, utterly erased and cancelled ; and many 15 
others lost their reason, some in a gentle form of pensive 
melancholy, some in a more restless form of feverish de- 
lirium and nervous agitation, and others in the fixed forms 
of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, or moping idiocy. Two 
great commemorative monuments arose in after years to 20 
mark the depth and permanence of the awe, the sacred and 
reverential grief, with which all persons looked back upon 
the dread calamities attached to the year of the tiger, — all 
who had either personally shared in those calamities and 
had themselves drunk from that cup of sorrow, or who had 25 
effectually been made witnesses to their results, and associ- 
ated with their relief : two great monuments, we say : first 
of all, one in the religious solemnity, enjoined by the dalai- 
lama, called in the Tartar language a Romananrj ; that is, a 
national commemoration, with music the most rich and sol- 30 
emn, of all the souls who departed to the rest of paradise 
from the afflictions of the desert. This took place about 
six years after the arrival in China. Secondly, another, 
more durable, and more commensurate to the scale of the 
calamity and to the grandeur of this national exodus, in the 35 



78 DE QUINCEY'S flight of a TARTAR TRIBE. 

mighty columns of granite and brass erected by the emperor, 
Kien Long, near the banks of tlie Ily. These columns stand 
upon the very margin of the steppes, and they bear a short 
but emphatic inscription to the following effect: — 

By the will of God, 

Here, upon the brink of these dt'serts. 

Which from this point begin and stretcli away, 

Pathless, treeless, waterless, 

For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many mighty 

nations, 

Rested from their labors and from great afflictions. 

Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 

And by the favor of Kien Long, God's Lieutenant upon Earth, 

The ancient Children of the Wilderness, — the Torgote Tartars, — 

Flying before the wrath of the Grecian czar ; 

Wandering sheep who had strayed away from the Celestial Empire in 

the year IGIG, 

But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite sorrow, 

Into the fold of their forgiving shepherd. 

Hallowed be the spot forever. 

And hallowed be the day — September 8, 1771 ! 

Amen. 



NOTES. 



An account of this singular flight of a Tartar tribe was written 
by the Chinese Emperor, as a state paper, in the Cliinese language. 
Roman Catholic missionaries translated parts of it, but the paper 
itself was very long, and in it the Emperor gives the reasons for his 
own treatment of the Kalmucks. 

Cambyses, king of the Medes and Persians, son of Cyrus, b.c. 529. 
Defeated rsammenitus, h.c. 525, and Egypt became a Persian prov- 
ince. The ruin of many of the monuments of Egypt is attributed to 
these invaders and their king, who was crazy. 

Anabasis of Cyrus. Known to schoolboys as Xenophon's Anabasis. 
Cyrus was the son of Darius the Persian. At Cunaxa he was defeated 
by his brother and slain n.c. 401. 

Crassus, Consul b.c. 55, was defeated by the Parthians with im- 
mense slaughter and put to death b.c. 53. 

Julian, Roman Emperor, surnamed the Apostate, was killed, a.d. 
363, in his expedition against the Persians. 

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, a.d. 1812. 

For the 'W/reat scriptural Exodus of the Israelites,^'' read the Book 
of Exodus, Old Testament. 

The Huns. Nomadic Scythian tribes, who devastated the Roman 
Empire in the fifth century. They inhabited the plains of Tartary, 
near China. Attila was their great leader. The Hungarians are the 
descendants of the Huns. 

Avars, or Avari. A Mongolian race, some of whom in the sixth 
century settled on the Danube. Conquered the Dalmatians and some 
German tribes. Were driven from Dalmatia a.d. 640. 

Mongol Tartars. Nearly allied to the Mongol race. Brought 
under Mongolic sway by Genghis Khan in the twelfth century. 
Western Tartary belongs to Russia ; Eastern Tartary to China. 
Tartary and Turkestan are, in a restricted sense, the same country. 

War betioeen Bussia and Turkey was frequently renewed after 
Peter the Great, in 1711, was defeated but allowed to escape with his 

79 



80 NOTES. 

army. By the peace of 1774, Russia obtained a large accession of 
territory and the Black Sea. 

The Bashkirs. A Tartar tribe of Russia, living principally in 
tents, except in winter. They are Mohammedans, and guard the 
frontiers of Russia. Their territory lies north of the Caspian Sea, on 
the rivers Volga and Ural and. their branches. 

Kirghizes. A Mongol race, on the southern frontier of Asiatic 
Russia, on barren plains abounding in salt lakes. They are often 
called the Cossacks of the Steppes. 

The Cossacks. A mixed Caucasian and Tartar race. They are 
dashing light-horse troops and form a military cordon of the empire 
of the Czar, extending from the Black Sea nearly to the Sea of 
Okhotsk in Eastern Siberia. 

Astrakhan. A part of European Russia, northw^est of the Caspian 
Sea, divided by the river Volga into two nearly equal parts. The 
people on the Caspian have extensive fisheries, but the tribes are 
mostly nomadic. 

Bussia. An absolute monarchy. The Czar is the real head of the 
nation and of the Greco-Russian Church. When Peter the Great 
ascended the throne in 1696, the policy and destiny of Russia were 
immediately changed. From this period the policy of Russia has 
been to extend her dominions east and south. Under Catharine II. 
she acquired great possessions in Poland and on the Black Sea. Not- 
withstanding the Crimean war, which humbled for a time the military 
pride of Russia, that nation has continued to advance. It has become 
one of the most powerful, as well as one of the most extensive, nations 
of modern times. It has an immense army of regular troops, and a 
feudal militia of the Cossacks and similar races. It has become the 
ruler and, to some extent, the pacificator of the barbarous tribes of 
Turkestan. It has great political influence in Persia. It menaces 
the possessions of England in Asia, although Afghanistan is the inde- 
pendent "buffer" state between the two rival nations and holds the 
Gates of Herat, the key of the situation. Lately, by taking the part 
of China in negotiations with Japan, after the disastrous defeat upon 
the sea of the Chinese by the Japanese, Russia has gained a strong 
foothold in the Celestial Empire. 

It is supposed to have, as its ultimate aim, the possession of Con- 
stantinople, and has already control of the Black and Caspian seas. 
The loss of a great Tartar tribe, therefore, in 1771, was humiliating to 
Russia's pride. Hence the pursuit and sanguinary attacks upon the 
fleeing Kalmucks. 



NOTES. 81 

The Kalmucks, or Cahnucks, had been expelled from China in 1672, 
but had been repeatedly invited to return. The tribe of the Derbets, 
or Tchoros, west of the Volga, did not join in the flight, and their 
descendants remain still in that region. De Quincey's estimate of the 
number of Tartars, whose flight he records, must be greatly exag- 
gerated, if other sources of information can be relied upon. Three 
hundred thousand souls would probably be nearer the fact. The dis- 
tance traveled, which he speaks of incidentally as 4000 miles, could 
not have exceeded 2000 miles, counting in all deflections from a 
straight course ; for the new Trans-Siberian railway, to be completed 
in 1905, and extending from European Russia, through Siberia and 
Manchuria, to the Japan Sea, is but 4741 miles long. 

On the map, the route of the flight may be approximately traced by 
the dotted lines ; the railway runs some hundreds of miles north. The 
student may profitably consult a large map of Central Asia for infor- 
mation concerning the boundaries of Russia in Asia at the present 
time. Russia's geographical relations with Turkey, Persia, Afghanis- 
tan, India, and China should also be studied. 

At the present time there is another "Flight" eastward which 
reminds one of the Kalmuck migration a century ago. It is a wild 
stampede of emigration, at first encouraged by the government, and 
which it now in vain endeavors to check. In 1894, 180,000 peasants 
set out for Siberia. Between the months of January and May, 1896, 
170,000 people had already passed on, and in May alone 100,000. 
Transportation lines are choked, with all the attendant miseries of 
hunger, despair, and death. Thus history repeats itself as civilization 
advances and the centuries roll on. 

Jaik Elver (p. 46). Now called the Ural. 

Wolga liiver (p. 46) . Same as the Volga. 

"Trashed" (p. 51, 5th line), means encumbered by indispensable 
baggage. 

"Indorsed" (p. 68, 18th line), from in and dorsum — with "human 
beings" on the camels' backs. 

The inscription at end of text has been changed from Chinese sym- 
bols of dates, to coincide with the Christian era. 

The term "Grecian czar" may have been used because the Russian 
Czar was supposed to be the successor of the Byzantine Cfesars, being 
of the same faith with them ; or, simply because the faith of the Russian 
Czar and of the Russian Church was Greek. 



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